The Complementarity of Team Meetings and Cross-Functional Communication: Empirical Evidence From New Services Development Teams

This article investigates the respective influence of two different forms of communication on performance in new services development teams, namely, formal team meetings and informal cross-functional communication. Based on the work by Gebert and colleagues, the authors suggest a complementary relationship between these two forms of communication. They posit that team meetings enhance knowledge integration but may challenge knowledge generation. Inversely, they posit that cross-functional communication fosters knowledge generation but hinders knowledge integration. The authors therefore expect that cross-functional communication and team meetings will interact to predict team performance. A study on 55 new services development teams in consulting and financial services confirmed the authors' hypothesis.