Team Role Theory - Meredith Belbin - Understanding Human Behavior

Team Role

Team role is

"A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way." - Meredith Belbin

The definition in closely related to human behavior.

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How can you understand your behavior or behavior of your team members

To understand your team role or team roles of your team members or potential team members you can approach Belbin associates and they charge 30 Pounds for each person.
For more details you can visit their web site. I came to know of this theory as I was going through DVDs of management films to select some films for screening a training program.
http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8

Nine Team Roles

Nine team roles are identified by Belbin

• Completer - Finisher
• Coordinator
• Implementor
• Monitor - Evaluator
• Plant
• Resource Investigator
• Shaper
• Specialist
• Teamworker

The behavior they exhibit is described in a pdf document. You can download the document from

http://www.belbin.com/content/page/49/Belbin_Team_Role_Descriptions.pdf.

Some explanation of the Roles

Completer - Finisher

This person has an attitude of mind to plan ahead to ensure that nothing is overlooked to see that a task started it completed and the goal post is reached. Persons with cavalier attitude toward detail and low regard for obligations tend to be poor finishers.

Coordinator

He is trusting by nature. He is calm and unflappable in the face of controversy.

Implementor (Also termed company worker)

He works for the company or the team rather tha in self pursuit.

Monitor - Evaluator

Is a person who evaluates all proposals with a detached mind. It is a mental work.

Plant

Individual genius

Resource Investigator

Has capacity for contacting people and exploring things related with outsiders.

Shaper

They look at all possible avenues of approach to solve a problem and abandon any that they do not find promising.

Specialist

Teamworker

Promotes team spirit.
The theory is supported by many research papers.

Research papers on the Theory

1. The distribution of Belbin team roles among UK managers,
Author(s): S.G. Fisher, T.A. Hunter, W.D.K. Macrosson
Journal: Personnel Review
Year: 2000 , Volume: 29 , Issue: 2 , Page: 124 - 140
2. Angela Gibson and Trevor Nesbit Belbin Team Roles, Organisational Patterns and eLearning: A Case Study
http://bitweb.tekotago.ac.nz/staticdata/papers06/papers/103gibsob.pdf
3. James Sommerville and Shirley Dalziel, “Project teambuilding—the applicability of Belbin's team-role self-perception inventory”, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 16, Issue 3, June 1998, Pages 165-171



YouTube video on nine team roles

Books

Belbin, R. Meredith, Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail, Heineman, London, 1981

 Articles on the theory

http://www.12manage.com/methods_belbin_team_roles.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Belbin-Team-Roles

Originally posted in Knol by me
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/team-role-theory-meredith-belbin/ 2utb2lsm2k7a/ 1240