Functional conflict and the effectiveness of marketing manager/sales manager working relationships

Effective cross-functional relationships (CFRs) between Marketing and other departments arecritical to the performance of most organisations. CFRs are part of Porter's value chain, andare an important aspect of a firm's market orientation. Over the last three decades, asignificant body of literature has emerged examining factors which contribute to effectiveCFRs, e.g., interpersonal communication, trust, and conflict between relationship partners.Whilst it is well accepted in the literature that interpersonal conflict can have powerfuldetrimental effects on CFRs, and in tum on firm performance, it is also acknowledged thatconflict can have functional effects within organisations. Despite this, very few studies ofMarketing's CFRs have examined functional conflict. In this paper empirical evidence ispresented from a study of 103 organisations in Australia, which demonstrates the powerfuleffects of functional conflict on CFRs. The context for the current study is the CFR betweenMarketing Managers and Sales Managers, and the results of this study provide insights formanagement efforts to better integrate the sister functions-Marketing and Sales.