Belbin's team roles

Abstract

In the recent years there has been an big interest in understanding how the different team members in project behave at their workspace and how to get the best out of them. These things get very interesting when a project manager has to make Project Human Resource Management. Which is the process of identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities, required skills, reporting relationsships and creating a staffing management plan. Here the project manager needs some tools to identify which team members fit into which team role and here can Belbin's team roles be a great help.

The Belbin team roles is develop by Dr. Meredith Belbin. The Belbin team roles can help you with identify the different team members strength and weaknesses. This can be used in all different kinds of projects and can help you create a team which have a high performance and efficiency. Belbin's team roles theory looks at how people behave in team work and which roles suits the different team members best. The Belbin team roles assesment is done by a certified Belbin consultant. Belbin's team roles are used by over 40 percent of the top 100 companies in the UK, the united Nations, the Worls Bank and thousands of organisations throughout the world to enhance individual and team performance.

This article will help you understand when you should use Belbin team roles, how to use them and will discuss the limitations of using Belbin's team roles.

Dr. Meredith Belbin

Dr. Meredith Belbin has a doctor degree in psychology from Clare college in Cambridge. After some time studying there her he decided to switche courses to Psycology, where he completed a two-year course in half the allotted time. After this he started studying for his PhD, focusing on the psychology of ageing in industry. He has been an active management consultant in more than fifty years for many different international and private firms. He is a professor and researcher at Henley Business School in Oxfordshire, England.

Dr. Meredith Belbin .

Dr. Meredith Belbin was born in 1926 and is married to Eunice, who he meet in the psychology course at Clare college in Cambridge.

Dr. Meredith Belbin originally identified the Team Roles as a part of a study of teams. This took place at Henley Business School. These study included a business simulation game. Dr. Meredith Belbin was invited in 1969 to use this business game as start if a study of team behavior . Dr. Meredith Belbin’s research gave to very important results. The first result showed it was possible to find and isolate nine different team roles, which could describe the inner psychological dynamic in a person as well as to describe the effects will have, partly on the employees and partly on the team. The second result was to make it possible to predict how well the team will preform from the different compositions of the nine team roles.

In the last couple of years Dr. Meredith Belbin has visited China and Rusiia to speak about the applications of the Tean Roles in differen cultures.

Belbin's Team Roles

Dr. Meredith Belbin defines a team role as "A tendency to bahve, contribute and interrelate with other in a partidular way." .

Belbin team roles consist of 9 clusters of behavior that individuals adopt when participating in a team.

Team Roles	Characteristics/Contribution	Allowable weakness	Function
Plant (PL)	Plants are innovators and inventors and cen be highly creative. They provide the source of original ideas to support innovation. Usually they prefer to operates by themselves at some distance from other team members, using their imaginnation and often working in an unothodox way. They tend to be introverted and react strongly to criticism and praise. their ideas may often be radical and may lack practical constraints. They are independent, and usually regarded as being clever as a results of their original and radical perspective.	They don't allways manage to communicate in a compelling way and offer their ideas in a practical and relevant framework or they can be able to ignore incidentals because they can be too preoccupied.	The main use of a Pant is to challenge conventional and established ways of doing things and provide suggested solutions for solving complex problems. Plants are often needed in the initial stages of a project or when a project is failing to progress. Plants have usually made their mark as founders of companies or as originators of new products. However, too many Plants in one team or group may be counter-productive as they tend to spend their time reinforcing their own ideas and engaging each other in combat.
Resource Investigater (RI)	Resource Investigators are usually enthusiastic extroverts. They are natural communicators with people both inside and outside the company. This means that the Resouce Investigator is the networker of the group. They are natural negotiators and are adept at exploring new opportunities and developing contacts. Although not a great source of original ideas, the Resource Investigater is effective when it comes to picking up other people's ideas and promoting them. As the name suggests, they are adept at finding out what is available and from whom. They usually receive a warm reception from others because of their warm outgoing nature. Resource Investigaters are generally relaxed people with a strong inquisitive sense and a readiness to see the possibilities in anything new. The Resource Investigator may appear to be flighty and inconstant, but their ability to call on their connections is usefull to the team.	The team member can be over optimistic and can lose interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.	Resource Ubvestigators are good at exploring and reporting back on ideas, developments or resources outside their immediate group. They are the natural people to set up external contacts and to carry out any subsequent negotiations. They have an ability to think on their feet and to probe others for information.
Co-ordinator (CO)	The distinguishing feature of Co-ordinators is their propensity for helping others to work towards shared goals. Mature, trusting and confident, they delegate readily. In interpersonal relations they are quick to spot individual talents and to use them in pursuit of group objectives. While Co-ordinators are not necessarily the cleverest or most senior member of a team, they are likely to have a broad outlook and perspective. The natural goal focus of Co-operator’s can sometimes lead to them manipulating others to achieve their personal objectives. In some situations COs are inclined to clash with Shapers due to their contrasting management styles. The Co-ordinator seeks fairness and equity among team members. Those who want to make decisions quickly, or unilaterally, may feel frustrated by their insistence on consulting with all members, but this can often improve the quality of decisions made by the team.	This team member can be seen as manipulative person and as a person who offloads personal work.	Co-operators are well placed when they are put in charge of a team of people with diverse skills and personal characteristics. They perform better in dealing with colleagues of near or equal rank than in directing junior subordinates. Their motto might well be "consultation with control" and they usually believe in tackling problems calmly.
Sharper (SH)	Shapers is a dynamic team member. Shapers are highly goal and oriented people with great drive and energy. They push themselves and others and tend to overcome obstacles by sheer determination. They tend to be highly assertive and have very directive management styles. Shapers also who loves a challenge and thrives on pressure. They frequently progress upward in organisations because they get results and because many people are impressed by their courageous and decisive leadership style. they drive and courage team members to overcome obstacles.	This person can be prone to provocation and offend peoples feelings. Shapers are not noted for their interpersonal sensitivities and can be argumentative and even aggressive.	Shapers are generally perceived as ideal managers because they generate action and thrive under pressure. They come into their own when quick and decisive action is called for to overcome threats and difficulties or when progress towards goals and objectives is unacceptably slow.
Monitor Evaluater (ME)	Monitor Evaluators is a strategic and descrening member, who tries to see all options and judge accurately. They are serious-minded, prudent individuals with a built-in immunity for being over-enthusiastic. They are likely to be slow in making decisions preferring to carefully think things over. Usually they have a high critical thinking ability. They have a good capacity for shrewd judgements that take all factors into account. A good Monitor Evaluaters is unlikely to make intuitive and reckless mistakes. They deal in facts and logic rather than emotion when considering options.	They are often regarded as over-critical and can be seen to be slow and boring. Theyr can lack drive and ability to inspire others.	Mpnitor Evaluators are best suited to analysing problems and evaluating ideas and suggestions. They are very good at weighing up the pro's and con's of options. In a managerial position their ability to make high quality decisions consistently is likely to make them highly regarded.
Team Worker (TW)	Teamworkers possess a mild and sociable disposition and are generally supportive and concerned about others. They seeks to endure that interpersonal relationships in the team are maintained. They have a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. TWs are perceptive, diplomatic and caring and tend to be good listeners. Because of these qualities it is hardly surprising that they are popular with their colleagues.	Their concern about creating harmony and avoiding conflict can make them indecisive when faced with having to make difficult solo decisions. This means that they can be indecisive in crunch situations.	The Team workers may be legitimately compared to the lubricating oil in a car engine. We don’t always appreciate how important it is until it isn’t there. Because of their ability to be able to resolve interpersonal problems Team workers come into their own when situations are tense and people feel uncared for and not appreciated. They can rise to senior positions because they have few enemies and the fact that they are ready to listen to the views and suggestions of others.
Implementor (IMP)	Implementers are characterised by their practical approach and possess higher than normal levels of self-control and discipline. They are prepared to work hard to ensure things are done as prescribed in a systematic way. They are typically loyal to the organisation and prescribed and established ways of doing things. They are likely to be regarded as someone who will not seek personal agendas and self-interest.	On the downside Implementers may be inflexible in accepting new ways of doing things, particularly if they are radical or impracticable. They may fustrate other team members by their perceived lack of enthusiasm for inspiring visions and radical ideas into workable solutions is important.	Implementers are valuable in an organisation because of their reliability and capacity for application. They succeed because they are efficient and because they have a sense of what is feasible and relevant. While many people might stray favouring the tasks they like to do and neglect things they find not to be to their liking an IMP is more likely to do what needs to be done in a systematic and relentless way.
Completer Finisher (CF)	Completer Finishers have a great capacity for the attention to detail. They constantly strive for perfection and correct errors. Completer Finishers are quite introvert and require less external stimulus than most people. The Completer Finiasher can be trusted to do work to the highest standard and to complete it on time.	The combination of striving for perfection and meeting deadlines often creates anxiety though and Completer Finishers are likely to be reluctant to trust others to do work to their own high standards. They are inclined to worry unduly and relutant to delegate.	The Completer Finisher is invaluable where tasks demand close concentration and a high degree of accuracy. The standards they set make them well suited to situations where precision and high standards are essential. CFs will also demand the same high standards from people around them and therefore create their own micro culture where the only standard acceptable is perfection.
Specialist (SP)	Later on (1988) Belbin added a ninth role, the "specialist", who brings expert knowledge to the team. The Specialist Team Role and the functional title of Specialist is often a cause for confusion. While it is true that both uses of the term may relate to people who are a source of technical knowledge and expertise the Specialist in Team Role terms has some very specific attributes. Their main distinguishing feature is their love of learning. They see learning and the accumulation of knowledge as the main reason for their existence and their single minded and resolute pursuit of this end is their main motivation. The SP is likely to be recognised by colleagues as an expert to turn to for help and guidance.	The Specialist will usually try to avoid being involved in unstructured meetings and discussions or those of a social nature. They may also be somewhat unyielding when challenged about the validity of their knowledge or field of expertise. This person contributes on only a narrow front and dweels on technicalities.	While Specialists may not be regarded as natural team players teams will be wise to engage the Specialist as a means of providing in depth research. As managers, they command respect because of their in-depth knowledge and they can be used to mentor others to raise their technical expertise.

In this table all there is written in Characteristic/Contributions is found in the article Team Weaver and in the article Belbin for students. The Allowable weakness is found in the Belbin Team Role summery. The functions is found in the article Belbin for students

The Allowables weakness' teels us about some of the weaknesses there can be in the different team roles. For example can a strength in one role can be seen as a weakness in other context. This could be if a person whose preferred the Team Role as the Monitor Evaluator is likely to be objective, impartial and good at carefully weighing up all possibilities to make the right decision. But someone with these strengths may well come across to other team members as being unenthusiastic or even boring. If they are failuring to inspire is tend to obscure the true strengths of a Monitor Evaluator. That weakness can be reckoned the price that necessarily has to be paid for the strength and in this sense it is termed Allowable.

These team roles, which can be seen in the table above, can be divided in action-oriented roles, people-oriented roles and Thinking-oriented roles.

Action-oriented Roles

• Shaper
• Implementer
• Completer Finisher

people-oriented Roles

• Co-ordinator
• Teamworker
• Rexource investigater

Thinking-orientated Roles

• Plant
• Monitor Evaluator
• Specialist

How to use the Belbins' Team Roles

The Belbin team analysis evaluates each team role and sort them into three categories, which can be seen bellow.

• Your naturally strong team roles, is the team roles you are strong in and therefor have the preferences to use them. Often you have 2-3 team roles you are natually strong in.
• Team roles you act in should be given to other team members, if they are strong i these roles. If there is not anybody who is natually strong in these team role or have the preference to be in the team role, you should take the role.
• At the last team roles is the team roles you should avoid and therefor it is important that another team members have these qualities.

The team members work best in their natually strong team roles. Therefor should they always work in these team roles so they can used their strengs. If all the team members work in their netually strong team roles will the team work, go very effetive in all phases of the projects. These also means there will be less conflicts during the team work.

To find your naturally strong team roles by using Belbin's team roles, you need to answer a lot of questions about yourself. From all these answer the certified Belbin consultant will make an assessment and then make a statement of which team roles are your naturally strong team roles and which team roles you should leave to others.

The results you get efter working with the Belbin Team roles theory is a better understanding of your team members and understanding of how and why they act they way they do. In this way you till get a better understanding of:

• How to control and result different conflicts.
• How can a team be effective.
• The recognition of dissimilarity.
• How to communicate better in your team.

It is very important for a project manager to have effecient and open communications with the teams memebers and between they team memebers.

Why and When should I use Belbin's team roles?

Belbin's team roles is a good tool when you are trying to get more loyal and happy team members. Belbin's team roles method os very ideal tool to use then you are working with:

• More effectives teams.
• Better cooperation between team members.
• Better comunication in the teams.
• Promote helping other team members and be more supporting inside the teams.
• Less conflict inside the teams.
• Better work enviroment.
• More respect for the the individual and team goals.
• Create a shared perception of team roles.

Annotated Bibliography

Belbin associates http://www.belbin.com/ This website provides a basic knowledge about who Dr. Meredith Belbin is and the thoughts about the theory was develop. It also tells about the 9 different team roles and their allowable weaknessess.

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