Product quality: Impact of interdepartmental interactions

The authors examine the role of organizational factors affecting interdepartmental interactions and their subsequent effects on product quality. Results from a national study suggest that product quality is affected by interdepartmental conflict and connectedness. Importantly, the linkage between interdepartmental conflict and product quality appears to be robust across varying levels of market turbulence and technological turbulence. In contrast, interdepartmental connectedness appears to be more important for product quality under conditions of high market and technological turbulence. The results also indicate that interdepartmental interactions are influenced by leadership characteristics (risk aversion of top managers), reward system orientation, and organization structure (centralization, departmentalization, and hierarchical levels). Managerial implications and directions for future work are proposed. His research interests focus on marketing strategy, marketing management, and new product management. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and other journals. His research focuses on implementing and controlling marketing, market/environmental orientation, and customer responses to advertising. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Review of Marketing, and other journals. His research interests include market orientation, marketing strategy, sales management, and industrial marketing. His work has appeared in a number of journals including theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, andStrategic Management Journal.