Why Belbin?

1.Why Belbin's team roles.

First time we have met with Belbin's team roles concept during our company's workshops done few months age by Gdanska Fundacja Ksztalcenia Menadzerow (GFKM). This association was first one in Poland that in 1995 started to use this concept within practical business environment. Among various of different assessments and tests which were presented Belbin's theory gave the impression of being very functional, especially in our current situation when we were promoted to leadership positions and we have to lead the teams of (at this time) anonymous for us people. At the same time this model is not to complicated so it can be used without any sophisticated analyses.

2.What is it Belbin's team role theory?

During a period of over nine years, Meredith Belbin and his team of researchers based at Henley Management College, England, studied the behavior of managers from all over the world.

HOA ammunition inspection 2010

Photo of figure skater Tanith Belbin.

HOA ammunition inspection 2010

Managers was observed during a training course provided by this college. Their different core personality traits, intellectual styles and behaviors were assessed during the exercise. As time progressed different clusters of behavior were identified as underlying the success of the teams.

First of all a team role was defined by Dr Meredith Belbin as: "A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way" and nine general team roles were described:

* Action oriented roles: Sharper, Implementer, and Completer Finisher

* People-oriented roles: Coordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator

* Cerebral roles: Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist

Table 1. Belbin's nine team roles with description

Team Roles Descriptions Allowable Weakness

PLANT (PL) Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied to communicate effectively

CO-ORDINATOR (CO) Mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making, delegates well Can often be seen as manipulative. Off loads...