THE STATUS OF CROSS-FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION IN UNDERGRADUATE MARKETING CURRICULA WITHIN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION.

It has been 20 years since Behrman and Levin suggested that real-world business problems "do not yield to a single-discipline solution" (1984, p. 142). During this 20-year period, there have been numerous calls for integration across college and university curriculums (cf., Association of American Colleges 1985; Boyer 1987) and within colleges of business in particular (Porter and McKibbin 1988). Schelfhaudt and Crittenden (2005) report, however, that while most MBA curricula have been revised to accommodate the trend toward cross-functional integration, the curricula of undergraduate business programs frequently fail to adapt to the changing needs of modern organizations. To meet these needs, employees must be skilled in organizational flexibility, teamwork, and cross-functional communication and collaboration (Smart and Barnum 2000; Sheth 2002). There is concern as to whether undergraduate students will matriculate with the people and technical skills needed in today's workplace (cf., Newman 1999; Parker 2003). Marketing has been suggested as the broadest area in business management and, as such, the boundary-spanning function with a company (Crittenden 2003). Academically, Barber et al. (2001, p. 240) suggested that the marketing department in a college of business "is in a powerful position to serve an important role in guiding and binding together other areas" in the facilitation of cross-functional teaching and learning. Following this practitioner and academic line of logic, the study reported here assesses the state of cross-functional management education from the perspective of the chairs of marketing departments in universities across the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]