DTU ProjectLab - User contributions [en-gb]

Talk:Causal Loop Diagram

2014-12-02T18:52:55Z

HuHe: /* Feedback provided by Madrid: */

Over all the structure of the article is very nice, many sources and it is easy to read. You have described the topic very well in a very understandable way.
The litterature you have used, is very reliable and trustworthy. I miss references for the loop diagrams.

** I made the causal loop diagrams myself. The population rate CLD is a classic example but I don't think that I can reference to someone who did it first. Do you mean reference in the text?

'''Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors'''

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors, but your article is written in a very understandable and simple language.

== Feedback provided by Madrid: ==

Overall your article has a good size and the topic you have chosen is written in an interesting way, with continuous examples that help understanding the theory.

In addition, I like the fact that you have both included and commented figures throughout your paper as well as making a good set of references that complement your article.
It is an engaging topic with a nice flow due to the connections made between the distinct points.

Below I include some corrections and comments that I personally think will improve your wiki article:

- I would state in the article where the references are used so the reader can take a look at them while reading.

** The references are the small numbers in brackets throughout the article. The number is also a shortcut to the reference list, where all the references are shortcuts for the source of the reference. Do you mean, that the shortcut for the reference itself should be stated in the text?
''''''Bold text'''No I ment the diagram, because I did not knew that it was made by your selv, sorry for that '''

- It would be nicer to add the conclusion on a separate point and avoid word repetitions within the same sentence such as: to avoid, is caused.

** That makes good sense, I will try to do that.

- Find synonyms for (in relation to) in 'What is a Causal Loop Diagram?' first paragraph.

** I will do that, thank you.

- From my point of view there are some grammatical mistakes, although they are just tiny details that can be fixed with a word translator. Here are some notes with the changes included:

** Thank you for pointing out every single sentense that you would rephrase, it must have taken some time.

'''ABSTRACT''' :

*''to reflect and '''advance''' the process. I would write '''streamline'''
** I wouldn't use streamline, because that is not the desired effect. I have changed it to improve.
*''By examining the dynamics in the CLD, project managers can use it as a decision tool and be aware ...
*''since the project manager cannot frame all the effects and causes intuitively as they interrelate differently. The activity of diagramming the CLD consists of the project manager revising and organizing the complexity, ...
*''cause confusion in the reader, ...
*''feedback loops have to be considered ...
*''to what variables are causing problems ...

'''HISTORY''' :
*''but it's the basis for creating feedback ...

'''WHAT IS A CAUSAL LOOP DIAGRAM?''' :
*''In the second paragraph: first and last line: create instead of creates ... As well as in the first line of 'Feedback Loops'.
*''where the variable is a set of causes that ...

'''DIFFERENT DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR''' :
*''behavior instead of behaviour ...
*''The dynamics of growth with overshoot are the result ...

'''HOW TO CREATE A CLD''' :
*''I would rather write: what this variable affects and how the effect is (or use question marks) ...

'''CLD IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT''' :
*''is performing better since one diagram is mapping the causes and the effects ...

'''APPLICATION OF CLD''' :
*''The events that are interesting to illustrate in the CLD have to be found.

'''CLD APPLICATION EXAMPLE: A PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM''' :
*''needs to be developed and put into practice.
*''the goodwill towards the manager.
*''have less variance on their schedule since they now have to ...
*''By having more overtime the costs will be affected and increased, ...

I hope this is helpful and good job! Kind regards.

** Thank you for the nice feedback, which I find constructive and helpful at the same time.

Talk:Designing Project Teams

2014-12-02T18:47:59Z

HuHe: /* Answer */

== Review by Keyser-sözer ==

review use of commas, i have removed ones that are unnecessary. a few sporadic grammar or spelling errors, i have also changed them myself where I can. all sections that I have suggested changes towards are chronological so that they are easier to find within the body of the text.

change the wording of this section "How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996)."

i have removed the use of 1st person from this section, you use the sentence "in my opinion", avoid 1st person in an academic article. "In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)"

change the wording of this section "When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role."

change the wording of this section "At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork."

change the wording of this section "Over the nine years analyzed and observed by Belbin and his team, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007)."

change the wording of this section "The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures"

There have been a few sections where I have had to change "he" or "she" to they. Avoid being gender specific. This is particularly apparent in the nine roles section.

Consider reviewing the whole of the nine roles section. Some words and sections are clumsy. The strengths and weaknesses section is strong, quick and to the point, however the descriptions of each role are poorly worded. I have changed a lot myself but there are a lot of words that could be changed to something more formal eg "Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010)." Don't use the words "get bored" here. Definitely worth considering using a stronger synonym for a lot of words within this section.

change the wording of this section "The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010)."

The two ending sections are clumsy, "team performing" and "conclusion". Team performing is clumsy in its wording, review how you have interlinked sentences and review some of the grammar. Likewise with the conclusion, however also consider reviewing what is being conveyed by the conclusion. A few words on how the Belbin Team Development tool could be improved could be considered along with more of a focus on the tool, your thoughts seem very disjointed, like you are not really drawing a conclusion at all until you reach the last two sentences.

Overall, the first few sections introduce the tool well. You have covered the need for a tool that defines a team and then you have went on to explain how Belbin's tool solves this problem. The Nine Roles section is good for defining exactly what the tool covers, however it definitely needs a few adjustments here and there. The ending section is relatively disjointed, you need to focus your thoughts a bit more potently, maybe include some argumentation about how well the tool performs its job. The report certainly includes the foundations for being a strong article.

*editing note- i have said where wording needs to be changed instead of changing it myself because I am uncertain of what you are trying to say. If you are having problems rewording these sections yourself, please message me and try to explain what you are trying to say, I would be more than happy to change it myself if I knew what you were trying to say.

== Peer review - Different ==

* Many sources. Nice structure. Easy to read in most sections!

* A very bold statement from the beginning! I like it, but it might require a source. (The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team)

* I probably wouldn't write "my" in an article like this. Try rephrasing it to "The article" or something in that direction. Specifically this line: "As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects"

* In the section "Designing teams" you use the word "team" 5 times. While I do understand it is necessary to use it a couple, 5 times might be going a bit overboard.

* The reference of (Hvenegaard 2003) might just be needed once in the first paragraph of designing teams

* You write: "Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team" It should just be: "Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed"

* You write: "Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group.". It would probably be better with: "Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group."

* There is quite a few grammatical errors in your article, and I've noted here some of them, but it would be an extensive process to catch them all. I'm convinced that you are a Dane, since your English sounds a bit Danish at times. Maybe you could look through it again, with a spell check on, or maybe get some help rephrasing some of the sentences that sounds "Danglish"

* " and a number of questionnaires" are there more than one questionnaire? A questionnaire can contain several questions, but I'm not sure if this is what you mean?

* "I" and "my" are used a couple of times in the section of section as well

* Good description of roles.

* The word "weakness" misses a capital letter in two places.

* There are a few punctuation errors in this section (The Nine team roles) - The word "Strength" has to be moved down a line, in more than one place. (e.g. under Finisher and Shaper)

* I'm not quiet sure why you are describing some roles as "he" and some as "she". It might not be necessary to change it, however.

* Under "Team worker" (also missing capital W), you suddenly start to talk about a "Intermediary". Is this the same role? Something is definitely up here.

* Finisher is written with the quotation marks " ". When you aren't doing it with the other roles, it might not be great _just_ to do it here.

* Under Team Performing(P here should also be capital!) you write: "Belbin has not optimal team size ranges". Maybe instead: "Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggests..."

* Under Team Performing you write that the teams should be balanced, but not really what that entails. Maybe add a couple of sentences about having a balanced team?

* Under Conclusion "Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with:" might be better as "Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain:

== Review - WinWin ==

=Structure=
* Nice and chronological structure in the article, but could definitely benefit from using more figures to break up the heavy text.
* The language is overall very appropriate and precise. However there are some obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. Taking care of this small matter will lift the article to a whole new level making it a much smoother experience for the reader.
* Try to incorporate tables instead of all the bullet points. It might provide a better overview for the reader.

=Content=
* There are several very strong paragraphs including the "roles" and "strengths/weaknesses".
* Very nice to have all the sources. It shows hard work and that the article is reliable.
* Maybe try to have clearer definitions and points throughout the report and make sure nothing is up to the interpretation of the reader. For instance under "Team Worker" you suddenly refer to "Intermediary", which is the same or something different?

= Review - WinWin =

==Structure==
* Nice and chronological structure in the article, but could definitely benefit from using more figures to break up the heavy text.
* The language is overall very appropriate and precise. However there are some obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. Taking care of this small matter will lift the article to a whole new level making it a much smoother experience for the reader.
* Try to incorporate tables instead of all the bullet points. It might provide a better overview for the reader.

==Content==
* There are several very strong paragraphs including the "roles" and "strengths/weaknesses".
* Very nice to have all the sources. It shows hard work and that the article is reliable.
* Maybe try to have clearer definitions and points throughout the report and make sure nothing is up to the interpretation of the reader. For instance under "Team Worker" you suddenly refer to "Intermediary", which is the same or something different?

== Answer==
Thank you both for your feedbacks, I found it very useful. Your suggestions has been noted. I've considered your comment in order to go through the text and try to make every sentence a little bit clearer

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-30T11:07:05Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project (Hvenegaard 2003). That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

==Related Articles on wiki media ==
Group Dynamics and Personality Types: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Group_Dynamics_and_Personality_Types

Four Stages of Team Development: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Four_Stages_of_Team_Development

Talk:Designing Project Teams

2014-11-29T18:02:07Z

HuHe: /* Content */

Talk:Designing Project Teams

2014-11-29T18:01:35Z

HuHe: /* Answer */

Talk:Designing Project Teams

2014-11-29T17:57:24Z

HuHe: /* Review by Keyser-sözer */

== Review by Keyser-sözer ==

review use of commas, i have removed ones that are unnecessary. a few sporadic grammar or spelling errors, i have also changed them myself where I can. all sections that I have suggested changes towards are chronological so that they are easier to find within the body of the text.

change the wording of this section "How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996)."

i have removed the use of 1st person from this section, you use the sentence "in my opinion", avoid 1st person in an academic article. "In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)"

change the wording of this section "When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role."

change the wording of this section "At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork."

change the wording of this section "Over the nine years analyzed and observed by Belbin and his team, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007)."

change the wording of this section "The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures"

There have been a few sections where I have had to change "he" or "she" to they. Avoid being gender specific. This is particularly apparent in the nine roles section.

Consider reviewing the whole of the nine roles section. Some words and sections are clumsy. The strengths and weaknesses section is strong, quick and to the point, however the descriptions of each role are poorly worded. I have changed a lot myself but there are a lot of words that could be changed to something more formal eg "Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010)." Don't use the words "get bored" here. Definitely worth considering using a stronger synonym for a lot of words within this section.

change the wording of this section "The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010)."

The two ending sections are clumsy, "team performing" and "conclusion". Team performing is clumsy in its wording, review how you have interlinked sentences and review some of the grammar. Likewise with the conclusion, however also consider reviewing what is being conveyed by the conclusion. A few words on how the Belbin Team Development tool could be improved could be considered along with more of a focus on the tool, your thoughts seem very disjointed, like you are not really drawing a conclusion at all until you reach the last two sentences.

Overall, the first few sections introduce the tool well. You have covered the need for a tool that defines a team and then you have went on to explain how Belbin's tool solves this problem. The Nine Roles section is good for defining exactly what the tool covers, however it definitely needs a few adjustments here and there. The ending section is relatively disjointed, you need to focus your thoughts a bit more potently, maybe include some argumentation about how well the tool performs its job. The report certainly includes the foundations for being a strong article.

*editing note- i have said where wording needs to be changed instead of changing it myself because I am uncertain of what you are trying to say. If you are having problems rewording these sections yourself, please message me and try to explain what you are trying to say, I would be more than happy to change it myself if I knew what you were trying to say.

== Answer==
Thank you very much for your feedback, your suggestions has been noted.

== Peer review - Different ==

* Many sources. Nice structure. Easy to read in most sections!

* A very bold statement from the beginning! I like it, but it might require a source. (The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team)

* I probably wouldn't write "my" in an article like this. Try rephrasing it to "The article" or something in that direction. Specifically this line: "As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects"

* In the section "Designing teams" you use the word "team" 5 times. While I do understand it is necessary to use it a couple, 5 times might be going a bit overboard.

* The reference of (Hvenegaard 2003) might just be needed once in the first paragraph of designing teams

* You write: "Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team" It should just be: "Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed"

* You write: "Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group.". It would probably be better with: "Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group."

* There is quite a few grammatical errors in your article, and I've noted here some of them, but it would be an extensive process to catch them all. I'm convinced that you are a Dane, since your English sounds a bit Danish at times. Maybe you could look through it again, with a spell check on, or maybe get some help rephrasing some of the sentences that sounds "Danglish"

* " and a number of questionnaires" are there more than one questionnaire? A questionnaire can contain several questions, but I'm not sure if this is what you mean?

* "I" and "my" are used a couple of times in the section of section as well

* Good description of roles.

* The word "weakness" misses a capital letter in two places.

* There are a few punctuation errors in this section (The Nine team roles) - The word "Strength" has to be moved down a line, in more than one place. (e.g. under Finisher and Shaper)

* I'm not quiet sure why you are describing some roles as "he" and some as "she". It might not be necessary to change it, however.

* Under "Team worker" (also missing capital W), you suddenly start to talk about a "Intermediary". Is this the same role? Something is definitely up here.

* Finisher is written with the quotation marks " ". When you aren't doing it with the other roles, it might not be great _just_ to do it here.

* Under Team Performing(P here should also be capital!) you write: "Belbin has not optimal team size ranges". Maybe instead: "Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggests..."

* Under Team Performing you write that the teams should be balanced, but not really what that entails. Maybe add a couple of sentences about having a balanced team?

* Under Conclusion "Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with:" might be better as "Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain:

== Review - WinWin ==

=Structure=
* Nice and chronological structure in the article, but could definitely benefit from using more figures to break up the heavy text.
* The language is overall very appropriate and precise. However there are some obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. Taking care of this small matter will lift the article to a whole new level making it a much smoother experience for the reader.
* Try to incorporate tables instead of all the bullet points. It might provide a better overview for the reader.

=Content=
* There are several very strong paragraphs including the "roles" and "strengths/weaknesses".
* Very nice to have all the sources. It shows hard work and that the article is reliable.
* Maybe try to have clearer definitions and points throughout the report and make sure nothing is up to the interpretation of the reader. For instance under "Team Worker" you suddenly refer to "Intermediary", which is the same or something different?

= Review - WinWin =

==Structure==
* Nice and chronological structure in the article, but could definitely benefit from using more figures to break up the heavy text.
* The language is overall very appropriate and precise. However there are some obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. Taking care of this small matter will lift the article to a whole new level making it a much smoother experience for the reader.
* Try to incorporate tables instead of all the bullet points. It might provide a better overview for the reader.

==Content==
* There are several very strong paragraphs including the "roles" and "strengths/weaknesses".
* Very nice to have all the sources. It shows hard work and that the article is reliable.
* Maybe try to have clearer definitions and points throughout the report and make sure nothing is up to the interpretation of the reader. For instance under "Team Worker" you suddenly refer to "Intermediary", which is the same or something different?

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:45:04Z

HuHe: /* Related Articles on wiki media */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project (Hvenegaard 2003). That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

==Related Articles on wiki media ==
Group Dynamics and Personality Types: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Group_Dynamics_and_Personality_Types

Four Stages of Team Development: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Four_Stages_of_Team_Development

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:40:36Z

HuHe: /* Related Articles on wiki media */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project (Hvenegaard 2003). That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

==Related Articles on wiki media ==
Group Dynamics and Personality Types: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Group_Dynamics_and_Personality_Types
Four Stages of Team Development: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Four_Stages_of_Team_Development

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:38:14Z

HuHe:

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project (Hvenegaard 2003). That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

==Related Articles on wiki media ==
Group Dynamics and Personality Types: http://apppm.man.dtu.dk/index.php/Group_Dynamics_and_Personality_Types

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:31:42Z

HuHe: /* Summary */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project (Hvenegaard 2003). That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:25:50Z

HuHe: /* References */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9] (Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:21:22Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according the information obtained (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:19:59Z

HuHe: /* Designing teams */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. Because it provids better awareness of each person's own role and other team roles, which helps to ensure internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:12:25Z

HuHe: /* Conclusion */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to attain: (Belbin 2010)

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and project goal

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:09:04Z

HuHe: /* Team Performing */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get team work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the teams knows each other and their roles in releation to the project, it will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the team (Wong 2000).
Team roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T20:06:26Z

HuHe: /* Team Performing */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. So the team, not consist of only idea genraters and specialists. Bur there should be some who analysis (analyst ) ideas and turns the ideas to something real.

It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:56:30Z

HuHe: /* Team performing */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team Performing==
Belbin has not defined optimal team sizes as it differs from project to project, but he suggests, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:54:55Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses:'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''Finisher:''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:52:02Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''Weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''Weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weaknesses'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''The intermediary:''' In order to get the team work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher:"''' is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. The finisher's important task is to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive

'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist:''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:35:35Z

HuHe: /* Belbin and his team roles concept */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defines 9 roles, which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
For the group to work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:32:15Z

HuHe: /* Belbin and his team roles concept */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over nine years Belbin and his team analyzed and observed, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
For the group to work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:29:39Z

HuHe: /* Designing teams */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a project team is formed, each person in the team takes a type of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as teamwork, the number of people in the team, the social relationship between the team members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed by Belbin and his team, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
For the group to work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-26T19:15:30Z

HuHe: /* Summary */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is that often a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As launching and building the project teams are the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. It sheds light on whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that they have hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefore, managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which have influences on the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibilities (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development of such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help prevent inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occur because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation; it then becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed by Belbin and his team, the factors which influence whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in two main conclusions (Mullins 2007);

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles which a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, neither does it evaluate the individual as being good or bad at their job, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work for Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles is a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. They understand that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes into account all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediation between team members, and ensures that decisions are changed according the information obtained.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures.
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task from start to finish, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. They are good at using their creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project mean that often they do not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' have a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. They have a good eye for resources and people who exist outside of the group but may be able to help the group move forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because they have an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often have to get input from others as there is a danger that they will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. They provide critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefore occupy an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that they can be so critical, they are not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
For the group to work well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker are heard, as they try to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. They are a catalyst in the group's communication, as they make sure everyone is heard and constantly find new ways to open up the conversation in the group. They are also good at mitigating conflicts and contradictions within the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. They ensure that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. They identify a lot with the group and have not marked private agendas. They may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. They work exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have their great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Talk:Causal Loop Diagram

2014-11-25T21:01:12Z

HuHe:

Talk:Causal Loop Diagram

2014-11-25T21:00:07Z

HuHe:

Over all the structure of the article is very nice, many sources and it is easy to read. You have described the topic very well in a very understandable way.
The litteratur you have used, is very reliable and trustworthy. I miss references for the loop diagrams.

'''Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors'''

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors, but your article is written in a very understandable and simple language.

Talk:Causal Loop Diagram

2014-11-25T20:50:30Z

HuHe: Created page with "Over all the structure of the article is very nice, many sources and it is easy to read. You have described the topic very well in a very understandable way. The litteratur yo..."

Over all the structure of the article is very nice, many sources and it is easy to read. You have described the topic very well in a very understandable way.
The litteratur you have used, is very reliable and trustworthy.

'''Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors'''

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors, but your article is written in a very understandable and simple language.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T20:47:42Z

HuHe: /* Some comments about the part below: */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

''' avoid using "We", "I" ect.'''

''In order to prevent XPM seeming as though it is just a wrap of well-known techniques, '''we proceed''' to discuss the rules mentioned before (see ‘Description of XPM, tools and techniques’)''

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, in order to make your article reliable and trustworthy, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy, fodnote or any other type.

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T20:47:02Z

HuHe: /* Reference list */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

''' avoid using "We", "I" ect.'''
In order to prevent XPM seeming as though it is just a wrap of well-known techniques, '''we proceed''' to discuss the rules mentioned before (see ‘Description of XPM, tools and techniques’):

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, in order to make your article reliable and trustworthy, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy, fodnote or any other type.

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T20:44:40Z

HuHe: /* Some comments about the part below: */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

''' avoid using "We", "I" ect.'''
In order to prevent XPM seeming as though it is just a wrap of well-known techniques, '''we proceed''' to discuss the rules mentioned before (see ‘Description of XPM, tools and techniques’):

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T19:48:56Z

HuHe: /* Feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==Feedback on grammatical- and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T19:48:23Z

HuHe: /* feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==Feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T19:47:43Z

HuHe:

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

==Abstract==
you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== Some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

== Reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T19:44:11Z

HuHe: /* Small Detail about your headlines */

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''it will look better if you remove the unnecessary: and.'''

== some comments about the part below: ==

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

== reference list ==

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

== '''Regarding your references''' ==

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Talk:The Extreme Project Management approach

2014-11-25T19:38:46Z

HuHe: /* Review by Huhe */ new section

== Review by Huhe ==

The contains and struture of your article is good, it covers the topics very well. It has a customized size. Below is some suggestions for improving your article.

you start your abstract by saying "Nowadays, '''many methodologies and tools''' are available when it comes to project management.......". It would be good if you name some of these methodologies and tools.

== Use bullet points ==

In your article you write:

''"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as: -Project and iteration’s scopes. -Measures to ensure quality. -Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so. -Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach. -Trust and communication established between all members of the project team are the key."
''
'''I think it would give a better overview if you write it in bullet- points maybe like the exampel below?:'''

Extreme Project Management became the main recent approach utilized in project management, especially in the big software industry." To catch the readers attention, it would be nice if you could breifly describe why it become the main recent approach here in your summary.
it will give a better overview if you write the following in bullet poiints_
"In order to implement XPM in a successful way, several criteria has to be taken into account such as:
* Project and iteration’s scopes
* Measures to ensure quality.
* Business team members decide what to deliver and technical team members how to deliver so.
* Corporate culture, which is ‘the ways a company's owners and employees think, feel and act’ must support XPM approach.
* Trust and communication established between all members of the project.

== Small Detail about your headlines==
all your headlines ends with ''':''' or '''.'''

ex: ABSTRACT: , INTRODUCTION TO EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT:...... CONCLUSION. , REFERENCES.

'''I understand the following part as: XPM can only be used in execution phase and change control processes in projects, right? If so, than what about other phases of the project? is there any other project management tools you can use or combine XPM with, to support/ manage the remaining phases/processes?'''

''XPM methodology should only be applied during the project’s execution and change control processes instead of using it for vision, overall strategy or project prioritization. It helps including all stakeholders involved in the process in an active way.
''

You have a reference list, that is good but you have not specified where in the article you have used it up. You have important aspects of XPM in your article, it will be nice to refer it to a specific source by using bibliografy or any other type of source is acknowledged

== '''Regarding your references''' ==

you have refer to some books you have used for your article. That is really good and most trustworthy source.

To make it easy for your reader to find the book, I think it would be good if you dirctly refer to the book, insted of using links. So the reader has the opportunity to find the book if the link does not work.

you have few references to some websites, I think, it would be a good idea to write when you visited the site last time. Just in case, if the site content changes over time.

I really dont like your references for wikipedia. Personally I don't find information in wikipedia trustworthy

==feedback on grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors==

I myself am not an expert in English, I could not give you feedback on grammatical and punctuation errors.
I think your article is written in a very understandable and simple language. There have been a few places where I have been a little confused about what you meant, but overall it was very nice.

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T22:08:57Z

HuHe: /* Conclusion */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect. An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T22:03:48Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* has it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the team. This ensures team worker for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:56:25Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource investigators can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource investigators, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* Has a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst''' will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:51:20Z

HuHe: /* Belbin and his team roles concept */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition.

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:51:01Z

HuHe: /* Belbin and his team roles concept */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).

- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.

- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:44:57Z

HuHe: /* Belbin and his team roles concept */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
''“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work"'' (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:43:42Z

HuHe: /* Conclusion */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

- More effective teams

- Enhanced cooperation and better communication between team

- Promote helping and supportive attitude within the team

- Fewer conflicts on the individual team

- Better working environment at team level

- Respect for the individual and team goals

- Create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:41:45Z

HuHe: /* Conclusion */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

*- more effective teams
*- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:40:51Z

HuHe: /* References */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” af Helle Hedegaard Hein version 1, københavn 2009.

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels o. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,
Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:38:16Z

HuHe: /* References */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.

[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6

[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.

[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund.

[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11

[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter

[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels

O. Fruensgaard.

[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,

Hilary 1999

[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349

[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:37:15Z

HuHe: /* References */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.
[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6
[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.
[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund .
[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage Model, British journal of management, vol 11.[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter
[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels

O. Fruensgaard.
[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Development Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David Harris,

Hilary 1999
[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349
[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:35:12Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.
[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6
[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.
[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund .
[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage
Model, British journal of management, vol 11, 273-283
[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter
[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels
O. Fruensgaard, Alborg universitetsforlag.
[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Developmen Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David;
Harris, Hilary 1999
[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349
[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:34:28Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Dont want to work with routines
* Not focus details

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.
[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6
[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.
[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund .
[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage
Model, British journal of management, vol 11, 273-283
[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter
[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels
O. Fruensgaard, Alborg universitetsforlag.
[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Developmen Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David;
Harris, Hilary 1999
[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349
[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:32:59Z

HuHe:

==Summary==
The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Not work with routine
* No sans for derails

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

----
- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.
[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6
[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.
[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund .
[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage
Model, British journal of management, vol 11, 273-283
[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter
[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels
O. Fruensgaard, Alborg universitetsforlag.
[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Developmen Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David;
Harris, Hilary 1999
[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349
[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:32:20Z

HuHe: /* Designing teams */

The most common characteristics of Danish companies are, that for each project, they are composing a new team. The composition of project teams are based on the employee availability for the project. That means, that the project teams are randomly formed. Ensuring the right team, is now an important managerial activity for project managers. The dilemma is often, that a project manager does not know where to find the expertise and right person within the organization (Belbin, 2010).

As lunching and building the project teams is the most important stages of starting up a project, my research in this article is to find out how Belbin’s team development-concept will help to ensure the right teams in projects.
Belbin team development is a tool that makes it possible to get an overview of where team members are assigned optimal roles. How it will be advantageous to combine the individual teams in relation to current project and departments. It sheds light on, whether each team need specific roles to solve a given task optimally (campion M, 1996).

By picking and matching high-performance teams, the project manager will ensure a good team and increase the overall efficiency and opportunity to experiencing the positive effects that he had hoped for (Cohen S, 1994).

==Designing teams==
Many theories indicate that it requires knowledge of group formation and structure of the team, to achieve a high performance team (Tuckman 2000). When building a team, it is important that there is a framework for creating a high-performance team, which includes a positive team environment and collaborate problem solving. The positive team environment includes basic rules, team identity, listening skills, and meeting management (Hvenegaard 2003). In addition, collaborative problem solving consists of continuous learning, conflict solving, decision-making styles and problem analysis (Hvenegaard 2003).
Therefor the managers should focus on building relationships between the team and provide leadership and management. The open and trusting relationships reduce communication barriers and have an impact on communication efficiency. In order to complete a project successfully, it is important in my view that there is a good relationship and good cooperation among the team members. As it is a part of humans social needs. (Hein 2009)

There are many factors such as; group roles, conflict solving, learning styles, and guidance which has influences in the nature of the group. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in the group have achieved a common understanding of the principles behind the goal (Algreen 1997). When a number of people included in a group with others, consume each person a form of role. This role may vary and is influenced by various factors, such as group work, the number of people in the group, the social relationship between the group and the group members' roles and responsibility (Algreen 1997). In order to build a strong team (Mullins 2007) argues that it is important to ensure that there is a balance between team members' functional role and team role.
By ensuring balance between team's roles, you get a strong team, who together make each other better, by using each other’s strengths and avoiding each other’s weaknesses. At the same time as providing awareness of own and other team roles better internal acceptance of colleagues' strengths and weaknesses in teamwork. This gives a much greater efficiency, job satisfaction and communication among individual team members (Hilary 2008). For composition and development such strong teams, Belbin Team roles theory will be a good starting point.
The definitions of team’s roles help loosen up the inefficient teams and conflicts between employees, which occurs because of different ways of thinking (Mullins 2006).
Belbin Team Roles theory is a powerful concept because it introduces a common language for roles and team cooperation. Then it becomes easier to talk specifically about how each member contributes to a part of the work and the end result. It is a tool that optimizes the composition of the teams (Belbin 2010).

==Belbin and his team roles concept==
To describe the importance of selecting the right team members, Dr. Meredith Belbin and his team roles concept is one of the most recognized theories, which is based on his extensive analysis of the composition and development of teams. The theory is based on a variety of other theories on the same subject (Belbin 2010).

Over the nine years analyzed and observed Belbin and his team, the factors which has influence on whether a team was successful or failure. His research resulted in particular in two conclusions (Mullins 2007).
- Nine team roles as a result of the empirical research. Describes the behavior and the contribution to the team, which can ensure effectiveness and success.
- A team's strengths and weaknesses in relation to project teams-composition

Belbin defends 9 roles, which he means a person may take in the context of a group. The analysis says nothing about the individual's skills, or evaluate the individual as a good or bad teammate, but focuses on the role each employee plays in the team. The profile consists of an analysis form, each team member should fill out, and a number of questionnaires (Belbin 2010).
Team Role analysis is very valuable work of Team Development, both for the individual and for the whole team.
Belbin team-roles are a tool that makes it easy to work with team development and focuses on how the individual will have an important role in the team's overall problem solving.

A team role is defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as:
“A behavior pattern that is characteristics for the way a person acts against another person in circumstances where this behavior is used to promote the whole group's work (Mullins 2007).

In the following I will describe the various team roles, their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses on teamwork.

==The Nine team roles==
'''Plant:''' This role is not necessarily the official leadership role and can therefore in principle be held by all group members. He is the visionary member who often takes the lead and puts projects. He knows what can be done and knows how to motivate others to give to the project. (Belbin 2010)

'''Strengths:'''

* Dynamics
* Get others to provide
'''weaknesses:'''
* High temperament
* Impatient
* Provoking effect on the other team

'''Organizer:''' The organizer has an eye for other people's ideas and make sure that others' strengths are exploited for the benefit of the whole group. She understands that it is about achieving the right balance in the group, which takes account of all group members' strengths and weaknesses. The organizer works all by listening to the opinions of others, summarizes information obtained, mediating between team members, and ensure that decisions are changed according to all this.

The organizer(s) are motivated by their sense of loyalty to the rest of the team, therefore, they often also the acidic tasks that others would otherwise let lie. Often the organizer however seen as inflexible because they find it difficult to leave their own thoughtful plans and structures
(Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Disciplined
* Large Loyalty
* Focus on Efficiency
* Tend to draw realistic assessments
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Inflexible
* New ideas are perceived as airy until they are proven

'''Idea-creator:''' it is natural to work with reflections on the task start and end, as well as the main roads have to be accessed in the workflow. He is good at using his creativity and thinking in new directions. This can be especially good if the group is about to "go dead" in the task. "Idea-creator's" ability and interest to see new ways and focus on the broad outlines of a project means often that he does not want to work with routine and detail work (Belbin2010).

'''Strengths'''
* Creativity
* Ingenuity
* Resourcefulness

'''weaknesses:'''
* Not work with routine
* No sans for derails

'''Resource Investigators:''' has a good overview of the ideas and suggestions other team produces. She has good eye for the resources and people who exist outside of the group, but may be able to help the group forward. Resource Collector can often help to improve the proposals and ideas, because she has an eye for special combinations in relation to team members, resources and other solutions. Resource Collector, however, often has to get input from others as there is a danger that she will get bored themselves and thus become ineffective in the group (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength:'''
* Extroversion
* Enthusiasm
* Curiosity
* And a good ability to investigate and seek out opportunities
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Quickly lose interest
* Talk a lot

'''Analyst:'''"Analyst" will make sure that all ideas and suggestions are well thought out before it is decided to go ahead with these. She provides critical evaluation of several alternatives on an objective basis and therefor occupies an important role in the group when it comes to assessment issues. The weakness of analyst is that she can be so critical that she is not receptive to new initiatives or changes in relation to the decisions taken (Belbin 2010).

'''Strength'''
* Analytical glance
* Objective approach
* Strong judgment
* Has the ability to evaluate rational aspects in the work

'''Weakness'''
* very direct
* Critical
* And it hard to enthuse other team members

'''Team worker'''
To the group works well, it is important that there is a good atmosphere in the group. This ensures implementer for, as he tries to support the other group members in their belief in their own abilities, ideas and opportunities to bring something to the solution of the group. He is a catalyst in the group communication, as he makes sure that everyone is heard and constantly finds new ways to open up the conversation in the group. He is also good to mitigate conflicts and contradictions in the group.

The intermediary shall ensure social cohesion, where the roles are bound together and creating team spirit. The intermediary would then like that all is well, which can result in conflict-avoidance. At the same time, the intermediary may be a little invisible in the team, but only until they are gone and the small discussion starts to flare up (Belbin 2010).

'''Strengths:'''
* Extroversion
* Diplomatic skills
* Flexibility
* Has the ability to avoid friction and create a good working

'''Weaknesses'''
* Undecided
* Allergic
* Confrontational
* Is uncertain in crucial situations

'''"Finisher"''' He is aware of how things can go wrong and what needs to be looked through thoroughly. In the last part of the task can "finisher" become impatient and nervous about the critical details should be forgotten. He is therefore important to ensure a high quality end product (Belbin 2010).
'''Strengths:'''
* Perfectionist
* Focused on details

'''Weakness'''
* Impatient
* Nervous
* Inner tension

'''Shaper:''' working practical, effective and systematic. She ensures that the routines and rules are created and that the adopted plans are being implemented. She identifies a lot with the group and has not marked private agendas. She may have difficulty changing routines and plans, and deviations from the agreed decisions (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength:'''
* Driven
* Passionate
* Willful
* competitive
'''Weaknesses'''
* Impatient
* Courageous

'''Specialist''' is the group member who possesses a high level of professional knowledge and he is therefore in many cases indispensable for the group. He works exclusively with the academic content of the group and through that a high commitment to the task. The Specialist, however, contributes almost exclusively for group work within an academic narrow field, while other areas and people in the group did not have his great interest. The specialist contributes to the team with a great deal of specific knowledge. The challenge is that they are often uninterested in what the team is working with besides this specialty area (Belbin 2010).
'''Strength'''
* Strong professional commitment
* Self-confidence
* Specialist knowledge
* Has a concentrated effort on their own goals and tasks
'''Weaknesses:'''
* Un-interested in others areas
* Often contributes only with its own professionalism to the team

==Team performing==
Belbin has not optimal team size ranges, but he suggest a team size about 10-12. If the team increases in the size, the team has to split in sub-teams (Mullins 2006). These do not necessarily have to cover all nine team roles, but they must be balanced. It is also necessary to look at the order of selection of roles. (Belbin 2010) recommends starting with finding the idea generator, than looking after the other roles.
In order to get group work function well, it is important that everyone knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone understands each other’s role in relation to the project. If the group knows each other and the roles in the group will furthermore be a good basis to avoid conflicts in the group (Wong 2000).
Group roles were described according to Belbin, who developed a theory that there are 9 different types of roles that can occur in a group. If the group is aware of the types of roles in the team, they gain greater understanding of everyone in the team, and this will help to find a balance in the team and organize a workflow that everyone's way of working is promoted (Hilary 1999).

==Conclusion==

Although the managers can judge from project participants CVs, if they are recruited the right professional profiles to a group, it is not guaranteed that the group will work perfect An efficient, well-functioning project is not only determined by what the participants can academically, but also of the personal skills, abilities and personality type.
Quality of work comes from good cooperation. When we give ourselves time and prioritize professional corporation, should the individual's wishes, goals and personal development be discussed and taken in consideration. It also means that we strengthen the ability to cooperate and that most employees can feel, that their professional approach to working life are weighted higher (Cohen 1994).
The background of individuals preferred team role will be different from person to person.
This is because the behavior is based on the interaction of several factors.
Someone is evident in their behavior, which is shown by a clear profile and there is high correlation between self-assessment and the observers' assessment.
Other people have a special ability to adapt to different working contexts. It may be a sign of versatility and attention to the team takes they are part of. Some variation in the most distinct team role can be expected (Mullins 2006). Belbin Team Development is a powerful tool when you want to work towards more efficient, happy and loyal employees in each team. Belbin Team Development is ideal when you want to work with: (Belbin 2010).

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- more effective teams
- enhanced cooperation and better communication between team
- promote helping and supportive attitude within the team
- fewer conflicts on the individual team
- better working environment at team level
- respect for the individual and team goals
- create common understanding of team roles and team goals

==References==

[1] (Cohen 1994). The effectivness of self-managing teams: a quasi-experiment. Human Reæations, 47: 13-43.
[2] (Belbin 2010) Team Roles at Work. 2. Edition. R Merdith Belbin, Routledge. ISBN: 976-1-85617-800-6
[3] (Campion 1996) Relations between work team characteristics and effectiveness: A replication and extension. Personnel Psychology , 49; 429-53.
[4] (Hvenegaard 2003). Gruppeorganiseret arbejde: På vej mod bedre arbejdsmiljæ og konkurrence evne? København: Frydenlund .
[5] (Tuckman 2000) Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman´s Stage
Model, British journal of management, vol 11, 273-283
[6] (Hein 2009) Motivation: Motivationsteori og praktisk anvendelse” version 1, københavn 2009. forfatter
[7] (Algreen 1997) Metode I Projektarbejdet projekt serien: Metode i projektarbejdet, problemorientering og gruppearbejde af Helle Algreen-ussing og Niels
O. Fruensgaard, Alborg universitetsforlag.
[8] (Hilary 1999) Journal of Management Developmen Volume 18, Issue 8 Team role balance and team performance: an empirical study Partington, David;
Harris, Hilary 1999
[9](Mullins 2007) Education Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Af Laurie J. Mullins Pearson Education, 2006. ISBN: 0273707345, 9780273707349
[10] (Wong 2000). The leader relationship: Building teamwork with and among employees. Leadershp& organization; 21:350-4

Designing Project Teams

2014-11-21T21:31:45Z

HuHe: /* The Nine team roles */