Abstract

The development of new products is critical challenge for many organizations. For companies in highly competitive technology based industries, the issues is not solely the introduction of new products but also how to accelerate the product development process (David, 1984). One popular technique for shortening the product development cycle is the use of teams. Teams are recommended as a way to improve coordination within the organization (Hackman & Walton, 1986; Kanter, 1983; Kazanjian & Drazin, 1987) and to speed product development by promoting the closer coupling of organizational functions necessary to move from a sequential to a parallel development process (Van de Ven, 1986). For these advantages to be realized, new product development teams must create effective means of interacting with other functional groups and hierarchical levels in the organization. Teams must get information and resources from other groups, both inside and outside the organization and use what they have acquired to create a viable product. The group must then transfer the newly created product to those who will manufacture and market it and gain their support for the new product (Burgelman, 1983). This makes the new product team highly dependent upon others and suggests that an important way of understanding the performance of these teams lies in examining how they manage the boundary between the team and other groups.


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ancona_caldwell_0991.pdf