The role of cross-functional teams on the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness

Organisations are increasingly investing in complex technological innovations, such as enterprise information systems, with the aim of improving the operation of the business, and in this way gaining competitive advantage. However, the implementation of technological innovations tends to have an excessive focus on either technological innovation effectiveness, or the resulting operational effectiveness. Focusing on either one of them is detrimental to long-term performance. Cross-functional teams have been used by many organisations as a way of involving expertise from different functional areas in the implementation of technologies. The role of boundary spanning actors is discussed as they bring a common language to the crossfunctional teams. Multiple regression analysis has been used to identify the structural relationships and provide an explanation for the influence of cross-functional teams, technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness in the continuous improvement of operational performance. The findings indicate that cross functional teams have an indirect influence on continuous improvement of operational performance through the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness