Team roles at work, second edition.pdf

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Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail The Coming Shape of Organisation Changing the Way We Work Beyond the Team

Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA First edition 1993 Reprinted 1993, 1994 (twice), 1996, 1997 (twice), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,2004, 2005 (twice), 2006 Second edition 2010 Copyright Ó 2010, Meredith Belbin. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved The right of Meredith Belbin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site athttp://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein British Library Cataloguing inPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-1-85617-800-6 For information on all Butterworth-Heinemann publications visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com Printed and bound in Great Britain 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2Preface
It was a matter of surprise for me and my publishers that my earlier book Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail should have reached its peak in sales 9 years after being first published. A new way of describing roles and relationships at work had gradually percolated into the wider language of industry and so created its own momentum. The level of interest shown related to two broadgroups of people. The first comprised those who work in management education, including industrial trainers. The second group was made up of active practitioners, especially those charged with the urgent need of improving results from small project teams or new business ventures. That was the background against which I decided to write the first edition of Team Roles at Work, published in 1993. Iapproached the subject by narrating as accurately as I could the events and experiences that led us to apply the theory and, in so doing, to pass on some of the lessons learnt. Now a decade and a half later, I have retained much of the original material but have sought to recast the subject in terms of the pressures of our times, with special reference to the choices currently facing Management. Thedirection of the book has been influenced by the many questions asked at lectures and the letters I have received from many different parts of the globe. Pressures began to mount in my mind whenever I reflected that the answers I gave at the time were not as adequate as I would have wished. Wisdom is always assisted in due course by the beneficence of time and hindsight. But I think the biggestfactor accounting for the decision to launch a second edition of Team Roles at Work is one of confidence. It is the practitioners themselves who have boosted the subject and raised the profile of Belbin teamwork. A further element of proof is that the approach has become almost second nature to some of the most successful companies in various parts of the world. A new blueprint is emerging that...