Meredith Belbin
{{Short description|English researcher and management consultant (1926–2025)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Raymond Meredith Belbin
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|6|4|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Sevenoaks, Kent, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|3|6|1926|6|4|df=yes}}
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| alma mater = Clare College, Cambridge
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| occupation = Management consultant
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| website = {{URL|https://www.belbin.com/}}
}}
Raymond Meredith Belbin (4 June 1926 – 6 March 2025) was a British researcher and management consultant best known for his work on management teams. He was a visiting professor and Honorary Fellow of Henley Management College in Oxfordshire, England.
Life and work
Belbin was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, England on 4 June 1926.{{cite web|title=363s Annual Return|url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/02263010/filing-history/MDEyNDMxMzY0MmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0|publisher=Companies House|access-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607122746/https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-live.ch.gov.uk/docs/wkhU4EEC9gfx-_eFPIZbeYqehFk1zSlGn50UmMsxYcE/application-pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAWRGBDBV3F2GHFQMD%2F20190607%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190607T122745Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=AgoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEBkaCWV1LXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCIQCpXccI9a37aFNvY%2FzHRxPmamFRzJDST4vA7Dg06wkcFQIgEWi6%2B6mRu4v%2FUG9ye93f5AfItnEsX9dm%2BcZpViYai%2B8q2gMIQRABGgw0NDkyMjkwMzI4MjIiDCA2NR%2F1U9boZE7Wiyq3A3fScUH%2Bz72LQHuhLSve6WXHipfEqYY%2BS9TIbAbMldpVGx%2FvHs5bdZYNXvNWJnymNbrRn88OkfWbbrH9WlxkIxkGbs%2BmLjJZ%2BT7Ue3%2BJn4bL9lYyWG4bC%2F7k2aHz%2BtaBrA4W8dQ4JNEaxRoL%2FHfqblnEYHYEJdKiR%2BTtNu%2FYgMW2M0JRHjtTS1Ivo4Q0lEEkA5hqaIMWla76Ot%2FtbETHyk8XCQL6xag7pQNShCWbVlZ2tjtVWon%2B9nwU7uutmohnGD0gjD7vY%2BnjUbLXVAhthpDpGhA2DZB07BTLcLbuslLmE2E6wLAamexn%2BXU20VTVQJpR%2FWvH8CnnVAocw5879y5NpRPFuLbPLyN1ev7OzsyJLqOpmDAxxmgBMajHw41GJv5VjMl6%2F6Ati4SevVOH3%2B0YQMpfR8EwqnDZhpq7UF%2B8LBeh3MbusHVo%2B5SeW0Sqx98ySRoCssQalGQKl7H1Dgy40WdqJkyEddViDgjIbUPHQFQvRdX9Fkr1IR055feEYYBAIVvePqNPv%2BQjesurWjzTgYNq6Maw1QfTVRW%2BSWh73UuQ32ywM0VAL%2BO44u2EldEw6NE6Y0MwgLzo5wU6tAFQW7soSgCTbKC893gcDRPZmPWrgxV1dja%2B8Q%2FmFmouSGeGARilVcopjdX1PwWukoyjjUctBUcBk4vPhuxUspfft7KbWPn8FeARxOsyNDBHpf%2BhMAJvuH0Hl4WJWW7ykEiGbisgD%2BPrCNku4rTyJd9fpniar6Z5nBjOfKiOXYC%2Bj2CbG2Gj3NOeephjk2DxQwFQDg%2FqwQKYPotZPiC9M3g%2FWzokzxLF9PJ6aQA9KR4NbEwf5k4%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=ff285f79e13719281c44a4e7a5af16f5a4956342f816550ccb49adce7711cad3|archive-date=7 June 2019|location=Cardiff|page=3|format=PDF|date=25 March 2004}}{{cite web|title=Timeline|url=https://www.belbin.com/about/timeline/|website=www.belbin.com|publisher=BELBIN Associates|access-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607130405/https://www.belbin.com/about/timeline/|archive-date=7 June 2019|location=Comberton|year=2018}} At Clare College, Cambridge he started on a degree course in Classics but, after tiring of the subject, switched to a two-year course in Psychology, which he completed in half the time.{{Cite web |title=Dr. Meredith Belbin |url=https://www.belbin.com/about/dr-meredith-belbin |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}} In 1947, shortly after his marriage to Eunice, he embarked on a doctorate, centred on the Psychology of Ageing in Industry, also at Cambridge. At university he was a rowing partner with David Attenborough.https://www.belbin.com/media/1794/tj-07-july-2017-belbin-interview.pdf
His first appointment after his doctorate was as a research fellow at Cranfield College (now Cranfield School of Management at Cranfield University). His early research focused mainly on older workers in industry. He returned to Cambridge and joined the Industrial Training Research Unit (ITRU) where his wife, Eunice Belbin OBE (née Fellows, 1915–2006), was director and he subsequently became chairman. Belbin combined this job with acting as OECD consultant running successful demonstration projects in Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=184329|title=Profile of Dr Meredith Belbin: The father of team roles|website=TrainingZone|date=9 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012002604/http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=184329|archive-date=12 October 2008|url-status=unfit}}
It was while at ITRU, in the late 1960s, that Belbin was invited to carry out research at what was then called the Administrative Staff College at Henley-on-Thames. Belbin was interested not just in individual behaviour but also in group behaviour. However, he had no particular theories about teams and so recruited three other specialists to help him. These were mathematician and international chess master Bill Hartston, an anthropologist of the peoples of Kenya Jeanne Fisher, and occupational psychologist Roger Mottram. Over the next seven years they conducted three business games a year, with eight teams in each game. Across all of the many meetings they observed, categorised, and recorded all of the contributions of the team members.{{cite magazine |last1=Jay |first1=Anthony |date=13 July 2004 |orig-year=Originally published in Observer Magazine in 1980 |title=Nobody's perfect – but a team can be |url=http://henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=2698 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all |magazine=Henry Thornton |location=Melbourne, Australia|publisher=henrythornton.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304022958/http://henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=2698|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=7 June 2019}} The research, which took nine years in total, formed the basis of his 1981 classic book, Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail.{{Cite web |title=Research - The Science behind Teamwork |url=https://www.belbin.com/about |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com}}{{Cite web |title=Belbin Books |url=https://www.belbin.com/resources/books |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com}}Belbin published a second book, Team Roles at Work, in 1993.{{Cite web |title=Belbin Books |url=https://www.belbin.com/resources/books |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com}}
Owing to the successful application of his research in industry, by the late 1980s, Belbin was writing reports on recruitment and selection by hand. In 1987 Belbin, his wife Eunice, and their son Nigel, formed Belbin Associates, to offer Team Role advice globally via a software platform called Interplace.{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=https://www.belbin.com/about/timeline |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}} The company transitioned to Belbin Limited (an Employee Ownership Trust) in 2022.{{Cite web |title=Belbin becomes an Employee Owned Trust and continues to grow {{!}} Cambridge Network |url=https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/belbin-becomes-employee-owned-trust-and-continues-grow |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk}}
Belbin lived at Barton, Cambridgeshire and was a keen gardener, opening his garden for many years for charity, as part of the National Garden Scheme. He married his second wife, Sheila, in 2008. He died, peacefully at home, on 6 March 2025, at the age of 98.{{cite web |title=Dr. R. Meredith Belbin 4th June 1926 – 6th March 2025 |url=https://www.belbin.com |website=Belbin |access-date=11 March 2025}}https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/belbin-announce-passing-dr-meredith-belbin-legendary-pioneer-team-role-theory
Belbin's research
{{Main|Belbin Team Inventory}}
Belbin's 1981 book, Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail presented conclusions from his work studying how members of teams interacted during business games run at Henley Management College. Amongst his key findings was that the most successful teams were made up of a diverse mix of behaviours. He found that high-performing teams were able to represent each of the nine Belbin team role behaviours at the appropriate time, commensurate with the team's purpose and objectives.{{Cite web |title=The Nine Belbin Team Roles |url=https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}} Each team member is likely to have strengths in two or three team roles, so that a team need not be as many as nine people, but perhaps should be at least three or four.{{Cite web |title=Team size - getting it right |url=https://www.belbin.com/resources/articles-directory/how-many-people-in-a-team |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}}
Whilst comparisons can be drawn between Belbin's behavioural team roles and personality types, Belbin defines a team role as one of nine clusters of behavioural attributes identified by his research at Henley as being effective in order to facilitate team progress. He claimed that the Belbin Team Inventory does not have psychometric properties.{{Cite web |title=Behavioural vs. Psychometric Tests |url=https://www.belbin.com/resources/articles-directory/behavioural-vs-psychometric-tests |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Belbin |first=R. Meredith |date=1993 |title=A reply to the Belbin Team-Role Self-Perception Inventory by Furnham, Steele and Pendleton |url=https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1993.tb00536.x |journal=Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology |language=en |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=259–260 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8325.1993.tb00536.x |issn=2044-8325}} The Belbin Team Inventory is the only sanctioned method for deriving Belbin team roles.{{Cite web |title=Belbin Copyright |url=https://www.belbin.com/about/copyright |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}}
= Apollo Team Syndrome =
Contrary to his initial predictions, Belbin discovered that teams made of high-intellect individuals often tended to fail. They were difficult to manage, prone to destructive debate and encountered significant difficulties with decision-making. The researchers called the phenomenon Apollo Team Syndrome after the first of these teams who, despite a promising membership with strong analytical skills and impressive academic credentials, foundered at every turn, resulting in poor team performance.{{Cite web |title=Intellect and individual endeavour in Belbin's Apollo teams |url=https://www.belbin.com/resources/blogs/belbins-apollo-teams-unpicking-clever |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.belbin.com |language=en}}
Works
- {{citation |title=Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail |edition=3 |year=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0080-9635-94}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780080963594/management-teams-meredith-belbin|title=Management Teams|date=14 May 2010|journal=Taylor & Francis|doi=10.4324/9780080963594/management-teams-meredith-belbin}}
- {{citation |title=Team Roles at Work |edition=3 |year=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1003-1631-52}} with Victoria Brown {{Cite journal|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003163152/team-roles-work-victoria-brown-meredith-belbin|title=Team Roles at Work|date=29 August 2022|journal=Taylor & Francis|doi=10.4324/9781003163152/team-roles-work-victoria-brown-meredith-belbin}}
See also
References
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Category:People from Sevenoaks
Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge