Currently, mixing roles is one of the most essential elements of a successful team.
In this essay, I will look at the concept of a blend of roles as it relates to effectiveness of a group.
As it is well known, each role brings its own perspective.
Therefore, it is important to explore how various roles influence upon each other.
The right mix of roles was proposed by Belbin in 1945 in your book “Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail”.
The researcher found that a balanced team should compose of nine team roles which he categorized into three groups: action, people and thought-oriented.
The first category consists of a shaper (someone who courages to overcome problems), an implementer who turns ideas into actions and a completer finisher - searches out errors.
The second group includes a coordinator who identifies talent, a perceptive and diplomatic team worker and a resource investigator.
He finds opportunities and negotiate for resources.
The thought-oriented group is basically about a creative plant, monitor evaluator (someone who sees all options and compare them) and a specialist who have specialized skills that is necessary to get the job done.
It is obvious that these roles are dealing with the complementary nature.
However sometimes mix of roles can have negative effect.
There are two stages a team goes through in order to become effective and successful.
In the early stages of team development, frequently people have different individual aims so they take attempts to affect each other or even enter conflicts.
However, in the course of time people begin to realize themselves as a part of a team; they share the common objectives.
To sum up, the idea of diversity of team roles can make a team into a balanced and effective group.