ACCA BT Syllabus D. Leadership And Management - Manager's Role - Notes 2 / 3
ROLE OF A MANAGER IN BUILDING A TEAM AND DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS WITHIN A TEAM
Belbin's team role theory
The role team role theory is developed by Meredith Belbin in 1981, following nine years of study.
The Belbin's team role theory has become one of the most accessible and widely used tools to support team building.
The team roles were designed to define and predict potential success of management teams, recognising that the strongest teams have a diversity of characters and personality types.
It has been criticised due to its potential oversimplification.
However, when used wisely to gain insight about the working of the team and identify the team strengths and weaknesses it can be extremely useful.
Belbin suggested that a group needs a balance of the above roles to be effective.
| Co-ordinator | Someone to control and organise the group's activities |
| Shaper | task leader, extrovert. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles |
| Plant | thoughtful. Solves difficult problems person |
| Monitor evaluator | criticises others ideas, brings the team down to earth. Sees all options, judges accurately |
| Resource investigator | extrovert, networker, looks for alternative solutions. Explores opportunities, develops contracts |
| Implementer (the company worker) | administrator, organiser. Turns ideas into practical actions |
| The team worker | concerned with relationships within the groups. Listen. |
| Completer (the finisher) | the progress chaser. Search out errors and omissions, delivers on time |
| Specialist (the expert) | as required by the project. Provides knowledge and skills |
Rackham and Manga have developed a helpful categorization of the types of contribution people can make to team discussion and decision making, including:
Proposing
Supporting
Seeking information
Giving information
Blocking / difficulty stating
Shutting-out behavior
Bringing-in behavior
Testing understanding
Summarizing
Each type of behavior may be appropriate in the right situation at the right time.
A team may be low on some types of contribution and it may be up to the team leader to adopt behaviors as to provide a balance.
Tuckman's theory of team development
Groups initially concern themselves with orientation accomplished primarily through testing.
Such testing serves to identify the boundaries of both interpersonal and task behaviours.
Coincident with testing in the interpersonal realm is the establishment of dependency relationships with leaders, other group members, or pre-existing standards.
It may be said that orientation, testing and dependence constitute the group process of forming.
The second point in the sequence is characterised by conflict and polarisation around interpersonal issues, with concomitant (being parallel with) emotional responding in the task sphere.
These behaviours serve as resistance to group influence and task requirements and may be labelled as storming.
Resistance is overcome in the third stage in which in-group feeling and cohesiveness develop, new standards evolve, and new roles are adopted.
In the task realm, intimate, personal opinions are expressed.
Thus, this is the stage of norming.
Finally, the group attains the fourth and final stage in which interpersonal structure becomes the tool of task activities.
Roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channeled into the task.
Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance.
This stage can be labelled as performing. (Tuckman 1965 - page 78 in the 2001 reprint).
More recently a 5th stage has been added to Tuckman's original four.
Dorming – If a team remains for a long time in the performing phase, there is a danger that it will be operating on automatic pilot.
Groupthink occurs to the extent that the group may be unaware of changing circumstances.
Instead, maintaining the team becomes one of its prime objectives.