Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Team Roles
Meredith Belbin identified nine Team Roles that he considered were required 
for effective teamwork. He carried out research into team selection at the 
Henley Management College and at the Industrial Training Research Unit at 
University College London. To achieve this, he first used a Self- Perception 
Inventory Analysis in seven sections. For each section, respondents were 
asked to distribute a total of ten points among the given statements which 
they thought most accurately described their own behaviour. The results 
were then scored and discussed and a team profile emerged. Belbin has pro-
duced one of the most widely used questionnaires for team selection and 
team training, and his analysis forms the basis for much of the research in 
the field of selecting and building effective teams.
In his research, Belbin identified the key players who would be important to 
a team and who would provide the necessary balance and interaction within 
the group. Their roles and attributes are summarized below in Figure 8.1.
These roles ensure that a team consists of members with the appropriate 
skills and qualities required at the different stages of a project or pro-
gramme from its planning stage through to its implementation. They also 
include the process skills to coordinate the diverse efforts. Belbin’s research 
supported the general conclusion that individuals are seldom good at every-
thing; they are dependent on the people they are working with and have 
more to contribute than their specific expertise. They are more motivated 
and happy working in a way that is natural to them. Team members should 
be selected both in terms of the team roles they can assume and also in rela-
tion to the team skills that are most needed for the purpose in hand. If the 
number of people in the team is small, it is possible for members to assume 
more than one role.
Belbin’s research can be summarized as follows:
Each individual has a primary role in which he or she tends to feel most 
comfortable. This is the dominant role and one to which the individual 
is best suited.
Each individual may possibly have as many as one to four  back- up roles 
which he or she is able to play but is less comfortable with.
Team members have strong diversity roles and complement each other’s 
different strengths. Teams with a mix of profiles and a balance of roles 
•
•
•

---

144 Cross-Cultural Communication