Belbin's 9 team roles

Using a project like structure for certain types of work has been around for thousands of years. One needs only to look at Noah’s description of the Ark in the Bible, where God delivered the scope, dimensions, and timeframe. However, only in the last century, we have seen the formalization and definition of projects as a proper, standalone form of running a business. These days project-oriented work is commonly used in vast numbers of industries and markets, but that has not come without challenges! Managers are today not only required to compose teams and project-groups, formed of people, whom they might know very little about. How do we ensure optimal performance from our project group? The success of a project-group has continuously proven to be heavily dependent on the interdisciplinary and interpersonal relations between the group members. To combat this, Dr. Meredith Belbin developed a set of defining eight personality traits, a ninth was added later, that are essential to a high functioning group. These nine roles, dubbed Belbin’s 9 team roles, can be determined by a written test performed by the group members and delivers an opportunity to ease the formation of project groups. Leading this article, you will obtain knowledge about the foundation on which Belbin built his theory, what his assumptions were and how the theory has evolved. This article will give an overall view of how these personality traits are defined, which strengths and weaknesses each possess, and how to combine them into a high functioning team. As a concluding chapter, the article will describe some commonly used points of criticism against Belbin’s theory along with its limitations.

Background

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The 9 Team Roles

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Application

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Limitations of the Belbin's 9 Roles

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