Belbin’s team role theory: for non‐managers also?

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Belbin team role scores derived from the 16PF5 personality questionnaire data were obtained from a sample of volunteers drawn from industrial and local authority organizations. The volunteers, comprising male and female managers and non-managers, with approximately equal numbers in each of the four possible categories, were set into teams. Approximately half of the 55 teams comprised solely managers, the other half solely non-managers. The distribution of Belbin team roles over all the teams was not controlled. All teams completed a business game typically used for training managers in team decision making. The distribution of Belbin scores amongst all the volunteers and the results of the business game provided evidence in support of the claim that Belbin's team role theory can be applied to non-managerial personnel.The research register for this journal is available at

Belbin's Team Role Model: Development, Validity and Applications for Team Building*

“…Management team roles for non‐managers? Some evidence has shown that Belbin's model should not be limited to management teams, as ‘the behaviours which each of the team roles bring to the process of making decisions are needed universally, irrespective of the level of the organization in which that activity occurs’ (Fisher et al., 2002, p. 15). They found no differences between managers and non‐management teams in terms of team role frequencies and team performance, reinforcing the idea that the model can also be applied to non‐managerial roles.…”

Interpersonal characteristics associated with different team roles in work groups

“…Although the leader is the single most influential member of a group, the collective influence of the remaining members can easily exceed the leader's influence (for a review, see Hare and Kent, 1994). One exception to this is work based on Belbin's team-role model (for recent examples, see Fisher et al, 1998Fisher et al, , 2000Fisher et al, , 2002. Belbin (1981Belbin ( , 1993 argued that an individual member of a group usually adopts a specific way of interacting with other members.…”

Increasing Employee Engagement in Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Within Continuous Improvement Programs in Manufacturing: The HR Link

“…The 'Big Five' conceptualisation derives from the 16 PF personality model that Belbin [61] based his research on to establish that personality characteristics lead to specific team roles, c.f. [82].…”

“…29for the role of Monitor-evaluator to contribute least to creativity, this role correlated at p<.01 with the variable 'the work I do promotes creativity'. A possible interpretation is that the participants did not fully understand the questions or that, in line with Fisher[82], this finding could add to extant theory that raises questions on the validity of the Belbin model.Fourth, results clearly suggest that different team roles are associated with situational leadership styles, thereby enabling a more effective management of human capital and establishing a new link in research. Knowledge of Supervisees' preferred team roles may be useful indicators of their behaviors and Supervisory style needs e.g.…”