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Keywords Teams, Teamwork, Tactics, Interpersonal communications, Psychometric tests
Abstract In the description of his team model, Belbin describes certain "allowable" weaknesses in the roles, the true-life experience of teamworking, however, sometimes reveals behaviour among colleagues which is far from "allowable". The Belbin model is silent on such behaviour, so an investigation of Machiavellianism within each of the Belbin team roles was undertaken to explore this darker side of team behaviour. The instrument chosen for the investigation was the Christie and Geis Machiavellianism IV scale. Sizeable correlations in the experimental data were obtained which were readily interpreted within the framework of the Belbin theory. Suggestions regarding aspects of team management were made based on the experimental findings.
Since its first appearance in the public domain in 1981, Belbin's Team Role theory has become widely known (Farnham et al., 1993a), taught (Huczynski, 1997) and extensively used (Employment Development Bulletin, 1995). For that reason alone it has been and, indeed, continues to be the subject of much research (Furnham et al, 1993a; Belbin, 1993a; Furnham et al., 1993b; Fisher et al, 1994; Fisher et al., 1996; Dulewicz, 1995; Broucek and Randell, 1996; Fisher et al., 1998; Higgs and Dulewicz, 1998; Higgs, 1999). The typical features of the Completer, the Co-ordinator, the Implementer, the Monitor evaluator, the Plant, the Resource investigator, the Shaper and the Team worker are now all familiar to a wide range of users and researchers. However, more appears to have been written about the positive qualities than the weakness associated with these roles, a trend highlighted by the appearance of three short articles which took a jocular and journalistic look at the dark side of team roles (Roderick, 1997a, 1997 b, 1998). Belbin lists a series of weaknesses associated with each of his team roles which, he maintains (Belbin, 1981, p. 78; 1993b, p. 21), are allowable. However, both authors' experience of teamworking is that shortcomings in colleagues' conduct is sometimes far from allowable. Unfortunately, Belbin's model sheds little light in this area. This paper is intended to remedy this deficit by describing an investigation into the Machiavellian side of Belbin's team roles. From the results of this investigation some proposals are advanced and insights given which should be useful to managers and...