Belbin Team Roles in Project Management

Developed by Zahra Al-Mosawi (S193938)

Big Idea

Background

The Belbin Team Roles is a theory developed by Meredith Belbin in collaboration with the mathematician Bill Hartson, the anthropologist Jeanne Fisher, and the occupational psychologist Roger Mottram, following nine years of study. The study was executed at the Administrative Staff College in Henley, which included yearly participation in three business games with eight teams per game, several meetings, observations, categorisations, records of different team members' contributions and psychometric tests. By analysing the study results, Meredith Belbin and his research team could find a connection between team members' various combinations of personalities and behaviours and the overall team performance. It became clear that it was the balance of behaviour rather than the intellect that enabled a team to be successful. The study also showed that companies with a mix of different people and different behaviours tended to be the most successful.

Eight distinct clusters of behaviour called "Belbin Team Roles" were identified during the course of the study. Later on, an additional Team Role based on specialist knowledge was identified. According to Meredith Belbin, a "Team Role" is defined as "a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.". As a part of the research, it was observed that various people showed characteristics of different Team Roles to varying degrees. With the gained insight from the study, Dr Belbin developed the Belbin Team Role Self-Perception Inventory (BTRSPI), a test that measures behaviour based on the nine Team Roles. Today the BTRSPI test and the Belbin Team Roles theory are widely used by several companies to identify behaviour-based strengths and weaknesses in different workplaces. A further description of the BTRSPI test can be found later in this article.