Belbin’s Team Role Theory

It is also important to remember that in order to make the team’s successful; team members should be corporative and not competitive with each other. The team members should trust each other in the tea and there should not be any conflicts and nobody should feel betrayed. Most importantly team members should represent a team which is cohesive and a sense of “we-ness” should prevail. (Robert Kreitner, 2004 , p. 455-459) In today’s competitive environment, those teams are successful which are self managed.
They are teams which are delegated administrative authorities for their task portfolio. They are also called semiautonomous teams and also super teams sometimes. Self managed teams have a positive impact on the work productivity. They give employees the authority to work in their own way but they are at the same time accountable for the results they present. It is also important to note that self managed teams do not completely eliminate the need for managerial supervision.
They need guidance and supervision in the course of their work and also somebody to ensure the proper working of the team in the right direction. (Robert Kreitner, 2004 , p. 465-468) Lastly, high performance teams are those teams which have a participative leadership with empowered employees. A tram that trust each other, shares knowledge and responsibility for work, a team which is focused towards the long-term success and a team which is proactive.

A team which has all these aspects is a team which will succeed in any task that it wants to perform. (Robert Kreitner, 2004 , p. 470) Born in 1926, Dr Meredith Belbin was an expert at team roles and has contributed a deal to increasing team effectiveness through his theory on work teams. This theory help us in understanding team roles better so that we can adjust them better in organization in order to increase team productivity. (Beblin’s Team Work Theory, 1994)
When considering team development, Belbin in his theory explains that during the process a person adopts several central and sub dominant roles, depending upon the situation. These roles can be classified into nine different types, each having its own strengths and weaknesses. A brief introduction to these roles is as follows: A Coordinator may not always be the central prominent figure in a team, but he a person who can be trusted for sound advice and is also a good listener. (Beblin’s Team Work Theory, 1994)
A Shaper is a person who is highly motivated to achieve the desired objectives, by all possible means. He can be aggressive at times and challenge other team members. The presence of more than two shapers can lead to team conflicts according to Belbin’s team role theory. (Beblin’s Team Work Theory, 1994) A Plant is a dominant team player who is focused to solve major problems rather than being involved in minor details. He is also characterized as a person who has a high IQ level and is an idea generator.