What is a team role? A team role as defined by Dr Meredith Belbin is:
Belbin team roles describe a pattern of behaviour that characterises one person’s
behaviour in relationship to another in facilitating the progress of a team. The
value of Belbin team-role theory lies in enabling an individual or team to benefit
from self-knowledge and adjust according to the demands being made by the external
situation.
How did the concept originate?
During a period of over nine years, Meredith Belbin and his team of researchers
based at Henley Management College, England, studied the behaviour of managers from
all over the world. Managers taking part in the study were given a battery of psychometric
tests and put into teams of varying composition, while they were engaged in a complex
management exercise. Their different core personality traits, intellectual styles
and behaviours were assessed during the exercise. As time progressed different clusters
of behaviour were identified as underlying the success of the teams. These successful
clusters of behaviour were then given names. Hence the emergence of nine team roles.
These are:
Action-oriented roles - Shaper, Implementer, and Completer Finisher
People-oriented roles - Co-ordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator
Cerebral roles - Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist
|
BELBIN Team-Role Type
|
Contributions
|
Allowable Weaknesses
|
|
PLANT
|
Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems.
|
Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied to communicate effectively.
|
|
CO-ORDINATOR
|
Mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making,
delegates well
|
Can often be seen as manipulative. Off loads personal work.
|
|
MONITOR EVALUATOR
|
Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately.
|
Lacks drive and ability to inspire others.
|
|
IMPLEMENTER
|
Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions
|
Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.
|
|
COMPLETER FINISHER
|
Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers
on time.
|
Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate.
|
|
RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR
|
Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts.
|
Over - optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.
|
|
SHAPER
|
Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. The drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
|
Prone to provocation. Offends people's feelings.
|
|
TEAMWORKER
|
Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction.
|
Indecisive in crunch situations.
|
|
SPECIALIST
|
Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.
|
Contributes only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities.
|
Results from this research showed that there are a finite number of behaviours or
TEAM ROLES which comprise certain patterns of behaviour which can be adopted naturally
by the various personality types found among people at work. The accurate delineation
of these TEAM ROLES is critical in understanding the dynamics of any management
or work team.