How do you combine two packaged food companies, both with very well known household brand names, and make it work? That’s the challenge managers at General Mills faced when it acquired Pillsbury. So they decided to identify, share, and integrate the best practices from both companies. And employee teams played a major role in how the company proceeded. “Brand Champions” was the program designed for all employees from different functional areas who worked on particular brands. These cross-functional teams attended the in-house training together as a unified group. Specific benefits of including these teams soon became evident. “A person from human resources, for instance, would ask a provocative question precisely because she wasn’t a marketer. It helped employees understand and appreciate different perspectives. Another benefit of including people from different functions was improved communication throughout the company. Employees began to understand how the other functional areas worked and how each area’s contribution was important to the overall success of the company.
1. What benefits did the cross-functional teams bring to General Mills?
2. What challenges would there be in creating an effective cross-functional team? How could managers deal with these challenges?
3. Explain how roles, norms, status, group size, and cohesiveness might affect these teams
4. Explain how each of the characteristics of effective teams (see Exhibit 9-6) would be important for an effective cross-functional team.