Team roles and team performance: Is there ‘really’ a link?

Belbin's (1981, 1993) team role theories are evaluated in terms of the claim that high team performance is associated with teams which are balanced in terms of the team roles represented amongst team members. Eleven teams from a mixture of private and public organizations were surveyed to test the proposition that a balanced team will be a high performing team and vice versa. Issues of measurement of team balance and team performance are addressed. The research is believed to be unique in including a number of criteria for team role balance rather than the single, simplistic measure frequently used. An innovative measure of team performance is used. The results of the investigation give some support to the link Belbin makes between team role balance and team performance. These are discussed in the light of the paucity of rigorous research in this area to date.