A Multi-Actor Approach to Conflict and Conflict Management in Cross-Functional Collaborative New Product Development: Case Studies within a Technology Firm

A Multi-Actor Approach to Conflict and Conflict Management in Cross-Functional Collaborative New Product Development: Case Studies within a Technology Firm

Abdulhasain, F.

De Bruijn, H. (mentor)
Van der Voort, H. (mentor)
Lukosch, S. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Section of Policy, Organisation, Law and Gaming

Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management

2015-08-28

The purpose of New Product Development (NPD) is addressing disequilibria in the market place through identification, development and deployment of suitable solutions as products, services or solutions. Teamwork, cross-functional collaboration, and conflict management in NPD are often described as leading factors in addressing such change and achieving market success of products. Especially cross-functional collaboration, defined as the involvement of multiple functions in a team, has been applied as an approach to higher efficiency in time and cost and customer value output by firms to counter competition. The NPD process is deemed to be a good location to implement organisational changes. Despite decades of research on collaboration in general and in NPD, the occurrence location of conflicts and conflict management in the collaborative process between the key NPD functions Marketing, Development, Procurement, and Operations have not been clearly defined in the context of product development in the electronics industry. This topic and scope is addressed by this research. Triggered by organisational changes within a large electronics firm, this exploratory research was set up to gain a better understanding of the collaboration dynamics, the role of conflict and its management in NPD. This research was planned and executed following a multi-method and multi-actor approach to determine the types and location of conflict in new product development. An initial literature study covering the topics of NPD, collaboration, conflict and conflict management was followed by empirical research through semi-structured interviews among members of NPD teams, project leaders, and higher management functions. Furthermore, workshop observations and reflective staff interviews were used to gather data on the NPD collaboration and decision making process, its dynamics and conflict within two separate NPD teams in two divisions of the research hosting firm. The research context was defined by the application of the Design for eXcellence (DfX) methodology in the context of both case studies. The empirical findings confirm the paradox of conflict. Depending on the type of conflict and the approach to manage it, conflict can be beneficial to NPD performance and relations. In this research, conflict of substantive nature is found to have a positive effect on NPD performance and relations between team members. Whilst moderate levels of substantive conflict have been found to allow for higher NPD performance. Low levels of conflict limit the questioning and challenging of ideas, solutions, and decisions, which is likely to lead to outcomes below the potential of the available knowledge and resources. High levels of substantive conflict also results in lower performance in time and relations due to the continuous questioning and challenging of ideas, solutions and decisions. Both extreme conditions tend not to stimulate sound progress and substance. Process conflict relates to unclear roles and responsibilities, as well as unclear procedures. In cases of substantive conflict, process conflict is likely to increase the level of conflict to an extent that lowers the positive performance effects of substantive conflict. Reaching this potential with the sensitivity towards conflict requires effective conflict management. This study has identified that substantive conflict through confrontation is perceived as positive in a collaborative atmosphere. This even applies under high workloads, while process conflict is perceived negatively and has been found to impact project performance in time and relations negatively. The main finding of this research is that escalation to higher management is chosen as a conflict management and resolution approach. The approach is chosen mainly under the conditions of process conflict and lower levels of informal interactions among project team members from different functions and between the project team and the management team.

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Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Abdulhasain, F.