Belbin's (1981, 1993) team role theories are evaluated in terms of the claim that high team performance is associated with teams which are balanced in terms of the team roles represented amongst team members. Eleven teams from a mixture of private and public organizations were surveyed to test the proposition that a balanced team will be a high performing team and vice versa. Issues of measurement of team balance and team performance are addressed. The research is believed to be unique in including a number of criteria for team role balance rather than the single, simplistic measure frequently used. An innovative measure of team performance is used. The results of the investigation give some support to the link Belbin makes between team role balance and team performance. These are discussed in the light of the paucity of rigorous research in this area to date.

This paper brings together research into and using the team role model developed by Belbin (1981, 1993a) in an attempt to provide an exhaustive assessment of construct validity in light of the conflicting evidence so far produced. Role theory is used to contextualize the origins of the model. The psychometric properties of the Team Role Self-Perception Inventory used to assess a person's likely behaviour in a team are examined along with 43 empirical studies that have tested theoretical associations between team roles and other cognitive or behavioural traits. While the evidence is mixed, we conclude that, on balance, the model and its accompanying Inventory have adequate convergent validity. However, strong associations between some team roles are observed, indicating weak discriminant validity among some scales in the Inventory. Through its coverage of important areas of teamworking, the paper contributes to the practitioner and research communities by providing fresh insights into aspects of teamworking and by suggesting new research agendas. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007.

Teamwork is a key feature of work in organisations and a central question in the extensive literature on teams concerns the ways that team performance can be measured. This paper summarises the concept of team performance and, focussing on management teams, reports the results of an extensive study into team members’ constructions of performance. Factor analysis of data collected through 60 repertory grid structured interviews with members of management teams suggests seven factors that represent team performance. The factors are: team purpose; team organisation; team leadership; team climate; interpersonal relations; team communications; and team composition. An eighth factor, team interaction with the wider organisation, is suggested from theoretical considerations and is included in an eight‐factor model of team performance.

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