Modular and Integral Knowledge Integration: From the Case of a Chinese IT Enterprise.

Numerous enterprises rely on cross-functional teams (CFT) to integrate multi-disciplinary knowledge. However, unexpected results occur in many CFT projects. This exploratory research attempts to illustrate how knowledge integration (KI) is influenced by combining and bonding capabilities in CFT. After a qualitative investigation into a Chinese mobile application company, we found that if a team's performance was poor, team members tended to work separately, which led to less communication among one another. We defined this type of KI as "modular knowledge integration (MKI)". In contrast, teams that performed well tended to communicate sufficiently with team members and cooperate well. We called this kind of KI "integral knowledge integration (IKI)". We propose that enterprises should include IKI rather than MKI in CFT. Additionally, if an enterprise expects to avoid MKI, "combining capability" and "bonding capability" should be improved accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]