COMMUNICATIONS PATTERNS OF NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEADERS

New product development (NPD) teams can be viewed as information creating and processing systems. As such, they are dependent on effective intra-team and extra-team communication. The team leader plays an important role in this communication process by fostering communication within the team and acting as a liaison (boundary spanner) between the team and other groups (e.g., manufacturing, customers, vendors). This study focuses on two types of NPD team leaders-operating and innovating-and explores their communication patterns with team members and external groups. The results indicate that the communication patterns of NPD team leaders are dependent on the type of team. Further, our findings show that degree of success differentiates the communication patterns of team leaders, particularly within operating types of teams.