Belbin Team Roles
PSPGOV516A – Develop and Use Emotional Intelligence
Assignment 2
Student: Rosalie Cuy
Assignment: Research & provide a summary on your views regarding the Belbin team roles in your workplace.
The Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) was originally published in Meredith Belbin’s book ‘Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail (1981)’.
Since that date the Belbin SPI has been widely adopted by organizations worldwide in countries such as Europe, America and Australia.
When undertaking research for this assignment it quickly became apparent that the Belbin Self-Scoring Inventory (SPI) was not a cut and dried solution for effective team building in and of itself. While Belbin’s model has become well known, widely used and is taught as a standard part of management training, it appears that there is some concern over the validity of using the Belbin SPI as the only method of identifying peoples behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace and team composites.
In fact, the company of Belbin Associates of which Dr Meredith Belbin is a current partner states on it’s company website (www.belbin.com), that ‘We do not recommend the use of the self-scoring questionnaire, since it is obsolete (no Specialist role), lacks the balance of observer input, is not properly normed and most importantly, does not offer any Team Role advice.’
The current accepted practice to determine the Team Role categories of an individual are through a combination of the revised Belbin SPI and observer assessments from the workplace, these are usually managers, colleagues and subordinates if applicable. This provides a more accurate indication of the behavioural strengths and weaknesses that an individual will demonstrate in a team environment.
This approach of taking into account self perception and the observations of others alleviates to some extent the problem in the individual not being either adequately self aware or adequately objective enough to give
Assignment 2
Student: Rosalie Cuy
Assignment: Research & provide a summary on your views regarding the Belbin team roles in your workplace.
The Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) was originally published in Meredith Belbin’s book ‘Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail (1981)’.
Since that date the Belbin SPI has been widely adopted by organizations worldwide in countries such as Europe, America and Australia.
When undertaking research for this assignment it quickly became apparent that the Belbin Self-Scoring Inventory (SPI) was not a cut and dried solution for effective team building in and of itself. While Belbin’s model has become well known, widely used and is taught as a standard part of management training, it appears that there is some concern over the validity of using the Belbin SPI as the only method of identifying peoples behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace and team composites.
In fact, the company of Belbin Associates of which Dr Meredith Belbin is a current partner states on it’s company website (www.belbin.com), that ‘We do not recommend the use of the self-scoring questionnaire, since it is obsolete (no Specialist role), lacks the balance of observer input, is not properly normed and most importantly, does not offer any Team Role advice.’
The current accepted practice to determine the Team Role categories of an individual are through a combination of the revised Belbin SPI and observer assessments from the workplace, these are usually managers, colleagues and subordinates if applicable. This provides a more accurate indication of the behavioural strengths and weaknesses that an individual will demonstrate in a team environment.
This approach of taking into account self perception and the observations of others alleviates to some extent the problem in the individual not being either adequately self aware or adequately objective enough to give
References: Torstein Krause Johansen Department of Management & Organisation University of Stirling, ‘Predicting a Team’s Behaviour by Using Belbin’s Team Role Self Perception Inventory—Human Resource Management Dissertation’, August 16, 2003 Belbin Associates Webiste, www.belbin.com Wikipedia website- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belbin_Team_Inventory