Effective Cross‐Functional Sourcing Teams: Critical Success Factors

It is increasingly evident that firms can benefit from a new organizational structure that features suppliers, customers, and managers from different areas crossing functional lines and moving horizontally throughout the organization. Within the procurement process, cross‐functional teams have become a major part of this new organizational structure. Simply forming and using cross‐functional sourcing teams, however, is no guarantee of improved performance. As a result, firms must plan and manage carefully how they use this type of team. This article presents the findings and conclusions from a research project that addressed the factors impacting cross‐functional sourcing team performance. The factors critical to sourcing team success include the availability of key organizational resources, participation and involvement of selected suppliers when required, higher levels of internal and external decision‐making authority, effective team leadership, and higher levels of effort put forth on team assignments.