Functional teams


In a functional team, all the members report to the same manager and have individual roles and responsibilities. This means that they rarely share the rewards and recognition collectively. The leader of the team is heavily involved in management, reviews, setting goals, delegating and monitoring individuals. However, this might lead to conflict within the team because each team member focuses on their own work and compete for time, resources and recognition. The members of a functional team usually focus on their own goals. 

For example, an accountancy firm might have a team that manages the small businesses' portfolios. Therefore, you might have one book keeper, one payroll person and one accountant, whose roles don't cross over so there is no team work, but they do report to the same manager. 

Benefits of functional teams:

  • Since the team is managed by an experienced person who understands the function or team roles as a whole, this could lead to speed and clarity to achieve the goals. Experienced team members might handle a problem faster than someone with less experience. Moreover, hiring people according to their function facilitates role responsibility and allocation of tasks, and this usually eliminates duplication of assignments that waste time and effort. 

  • The team members of a functional team are specialised in a certain area and this allows sharing of thoughts and knowledge to improve all aspects of your project. Their specialised skills will enable them to perform tasks quickly, efficiently and confidently, reducing the work-related mistakes. Depending on the complexity of your project, you will employ technical and professional expertise and since the work is handled by fully qualified personnel, this will also increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. 

  • Many organisations choose this structure as it creates clarity around skills, decision making and organisationally simple. Other teams know who to ask for help or which function to find expertise in. Sharing knowledge and skills, and collaborating effectively across functions leads to operational efficiencies and enhances productivity levels. 

Challenges of functional teams:

  • Functional teams can be more bureaucratic than other types of teams and develop policies and systems that work for them without consulting others. It may create a siloed mentality where functions create an "us and them" culture. Team member might find it difficult to communicate across areas without approval which could decrease flexibility and innovation.  

  • Since expertise is developed within a function, growth and development of wider business matters might be hindered. Career opportunities might be limited and members can't see how transferable their skills maybe. They become stuck in their own ways and may stagnate.

  • If communication is not facilitated between teams, this might lead to missed opportunities. An isolated group might start to underperform because they fail to understand the bigger picture. When co-operation and co-ordination aren’t encouraged by managers, your project might suffer from delays and reduced commitment.  

How to lead functional teams:

Considering the fact that a functional team requires a leader that has oversight of the entire project or team, you will need to ensure that there are no barriers when it comes to transferring work from one team to another. This means that your managers should be encouraged to collaborate across teams when necessary, so they can then encourage their team members to co-ordinate their decisions with other teams' decisions to achieve the overall goals of your business. Exchanging valuable information will save you time and resources.


Great ideas to broaden ideas, skills and expertise is secondments, mentoring, cross-working parties, exposure to business wide projects. Therefore functional is the primary approach, but with some matrix style elements, might be the answer.

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