Managing Innovation by Cross-Functional Teams Research Proposal - 1

Managing Innovation by Cross-Functional Teams - Research Proposal Example Corporate strategy in effect maps out the businesses in which an organisation intends to compete in a way that focuses resources to convert distinctive capabilities into competitive advantage. (Andrews, 1997). In this vein, managing a cross-functional team requires considerable skills as effective teamwork is seldom an automatic process. Organizational change or change in general can be defined from a variety of points depending on the perception of the user. An individual or employee in an organization may look at a new post or position as a change while higher management may feel it is unimportant. (Cao et al, 2000, p187). Changes viewed also by management may also not be looked upon as change by outsiders like competitors or suppliers. This has led to the categorizing of change in various ways, some of which include strategic and non-strategic change, incremental and radical change, changes of identity, co-ordination and control, planned and emergent change, change in terms of scale, human-centered change in terms of individual, group and inter-group or organizational level, quantum change and so on. (Cao et al, 2000, p187; Todnem, 2005, p372). Innovation is a management change process. There is a growing number of existing literatures on value drivers, core competences, and success factors in an organisation. E.g. Sim & Ali (1998) compared the attributes and performance of firms from developed countries with those from developing countries within the same industry, Park & Russo (1996) focus on the differential impact of firm’s size to its success and parents shareholders value, Hagan (1998) and Prahalad & Hamel (1990) focus on the core competence of an organisation however, none of these studies has addressed the qualities and salient features with respect to a particular organisation. Under today’s fierce competition it has become increasingly necessary to probe