Effective Teams

Creating and Managing Effective Teams

Leah Gonsalves

Axia College of UOP

MGT245

Ian Beavers

March 8, 2009

Cross-functional teams are very different from other types of work teams because of the fact that each member of the team is from a different department and the project that they are working on is not directly related to what each member’s position requires. When choosing members of a cross-functional team one must take the time to examine the potential candidates and be sure to choose the best possible employees to form the team. There are many things to look for in an employee to ensure that they not only have the necessary experience, but will be able to work effectively with other team members and achieve success. Team members must want to be successful as a team and not as individuals (Proehl, R.A., 1997).

When selecting the members for the team, the team manager must consider factors such as experience, personality, past achievements, hobbies, and lifestyle when reviewing potential candidates. It is important that each member will be available to meet regularly with the team, has different skills, and is open-minded, motivated, creative, and willing to consider input and feedback from other team members. This is because a cross-functional team is usually formed because the company is struggling for survival and is relying on the team’s success to pull them through (Proehl, R.A., 1997).

For these reasons, these factors were considered when choosing a team in the stimulation. John was chosen for the role of assessor and advisor because of the fact that he has 15 years of managing experience in automotive development and that he came from BMW who is a top competitor. John is known for being set in his ways which is a good personality trait for someone to have when assigned the role of assessor and advisor. This is because this shows that John will be able to successful advice the team without being potentially influenced by its...