Project Team Dynamics Paper
1. Critical reflection of the validity of the Belbin’s self-perception inventory
Nowadays team working is becoming a fundamental concern for many organisations. Whereas there are a number of factors affecting a team/group performance, significant attention has been given to the effect of the diversity of team members regarding roles that are played in a team. A popular team role model which is being used internationally in research on team environment as well as in practice at work is Belbin’s self-perception inventory which was devised by Meredith Belbin. The purpose of the model is to assess how an individual behaves in a team environment. People are sorted into one of 16 typical qualities and measured on how they express behaviourally from 9 different team roles, namely: plant, resource investigator, co-ordinator, shaper, monitor /evaluator, team worker, implementer, completer /finisher and specialist. Team roles then are divided into 3 main groups; action roles (including shaper, implementer, completer / finisher), social roles which are co-ordinator, team worker, resource investigator, and thinking roles (plant, monitor / evaluator, specialist). It is very important to clarify the true definition of these roles in understanding teamwork and group dynamics. The writer is going to introduce briefly about these 9 characteristics, then reflect critically of the validity of Belbin self perception inventory in terms of the role that I appeared to adopt whilst undertaking a small group task.
Table 1: Belbin’s team-role descriptions
Source: www.belbin.com
In this model, the definitions of these nine roles are based upon six factors: personality, mental ability, current values, field constraints, experience and role learning. Nevertheless, each factor provided no explanation for the variance amount in a team role. Belbin strongly believes that in order to achieve good performance in teamwork, a balanced representation of all team roles is essential.
Nowadays team working is becoming a fundamental concern for many organisations. Whereas there are a number of factors affecting a team/group performance, significant attention has been given to the effect of the diversity of team members regarding roles that are played in a team. A popular team role model which is being used internationally in research on team environment as well as in practice at work is Belbin’s self-perception inventory which was devised by Meredith Belbin. The purpose of the model is to assess how an individual behaves in a team environment. People are sorted into one of 16 typical qualities and measured on how they express behaviourally from 9 different team roles, namely: plant, resource investigator, co-ordinator, shaper, monitor /evaluator, team worker, implementer, completer /finisher and specialist. Team roles then are divided into 3 main groups; action roles (including shaper, implementer, completer / finisher), social roles which are co-ordinator, team worker, resource investigator, and thinking roles (plant, monitor / evaluator, specialist). It is very important to clarify the true definition of these roles in understanding teamwork and group dynamics. The writer is going to introduce briefly about these 9 characteristics, then reflect critically of the validity of Belbin self perception inventory in terms of the role that I appeared to adopt whilst undertaking a small group task.
Table 1: Belbin’s team-role descriptions
Source: www.belbin.com
In this model, the definitions of these nine roles are based upon six factors: personality, mental ability, current values, field constraints, experience and role learning. Nevertheless, each factor provided no explanation for the variance amount in a team role. Belbin strongly believes that in order to achieve good performance in teamwork, a balanced representation of all team roles is essential.
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