A Study of Knowledge Sharing in Cross Functional Teams

Abstract

The study draws attention to the under researched domain of knowledge sharing in the context of cross functional teams. The knowledge-based view of the firm is based on the notion that value is created primarily not from tangible resources but from intangible or knowledge-based assets (Sveiby, 1997) and knowledge is the most important source of competitive advantage and sustained superior performance (Drucker, 1995; Spender & Grant, 1996). Teece (2000) argued that the essence of the firm is its ability to create, transfer, assemble, integrate, protect and exploit knowledge assets. By intensifying and expanding new knowledge (creation and sharing) not only a company can develop new tangible products and services that improve its market position but it can also form the basis for organizational change and renewal. Literature says that company growth is primarily dependent on its ability to develop, leverage, and utilize its knowledge base (Saloj¨arvi, Furu, & Sveiby, 2005). From a strategic point of view, the focus of firms should be on creating inimitable knowledge and sharing it within the corporation (Sveiby, 2001). Traditional organizations with heavy internal competition, rigid functional boundaries and undue compartmentalization exhibit sub-optimal performance by inhibiting critical information flows (Mohamed, Stankosky & Murray, 2004). To avoid such situation organizations move to either project based or permanent cross functional teams as an attempt to solve this problem by building organizational connections across different functional units (Mohamed, Stankosky & Murray, 2004). Study deals with investigating the antecedents of knowledge sharing among cross functional team members and subsequently examining its impact on the performance. These antecedents have been classified under organizational characteristics, job characteristics and individual characteristic. The study has been based upon the data collected from 582 team members among 69 teams in 26 surveyed organizations in the country. Results suggest that mutual trust among team members moderates the knowledge sharing behaviour and hence team performance. Some factors likely to predict knowledge sharing were explored and some new key predictors of knowledge sharing were identified. The results indicate that in order to improve the performance of cross functional teams, the high knowledge sharing behaviour among the team members is must. Not only this, the extent of knowledge sharing may be enhanced through learning culture, formal and regular employee training, top management support, hiring emotionally intelligent people and high interpersonal trust among the team members. The results for the organizational structure elements are mixed. Structure showed partial impact on knowledge sharing as centralization is negatively related to knowledge sharing while formalization has been found insignificant. Overall, this study contributes to the current literature of knowledge sharing by identifying theories of knowledge sharing, empirically testing multiple antecedents of knowledge sharing including least studied individual characteristics such as, emotional intelligence and their impact on team performance amongst the members of cross functional teams.