| HONG, Professor Jacky F.L. |
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| No author information available |
| Articles |
Winter 2008
Knowledge-Sharing in Cross-Functional Virtual Teams
Jacky F.L. Hong, Sara Vai
The emergence of cross-functional virtual teams has presented both benefits and challenges to organisations. However, the unique characteristics of virtual teams make the sharing of knowledge among the geographically separated members difficult. This paper attempts to
address this issue by looking at how the process of knowledge transfer takes place in a crossfunctional virtual team. A case study is conducted to interview various cross-functional virtual team members in one local subsidiary of a multinational telecommunication corporation as well as two of its hardware vendors. The findings indicate that four knowledge-sharing mechanisms are being employed, including shared understanding, learning climate, job rotation and coaching. Among them, shared understanding and learning climate are thought to be able to
solve the challenge related to the unwillingness among the virtual team members to participate in the knowledge-sharing process, whereas coaching and job rotation are argued to be the solutions for the lack of collective competence required for performing the co-operative
works. Some practical implications are also suggested for the e€ective management of crossfunctional virtual teams. |
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