Benne & Sheats
In the 1940s, Kenneth Benne & Paul Sheats identified three categories of role behaviours in groups: Task roles, Personal/Social roles, and Dysfunctional/Self-interest roles. They then populated the three headings with a total of twenty-six “functional roles” by labelling positive and negative types of behaviour noted in the dynamics of the observed groups.
Apart from publishing their observations in 1948, Benne and Sheats did nothing more – they offered no means of evaluating a group other than by observation in the workplace, or through facilitated workshops.
Belbin
During the 1970s in the UK, Dr Meredith Belbin began studying team effectiveness at what is now known as Henley Business School. The result was the Self Perception Inventory (BTRI or BSPI).
The BSPI process is simple, quick and provides insights into the team roles people prefer. It is also subjective, as it requires each person to choose, mentally, which of the available roles they think they match before allocating their points. For an impartial critique of Belbin’s methodology, see “A psychometric assessment of Belbin’s Team Roles SPI”.
Promana's Team Roles is created
In the late 70s and early 80s, New Zealand management educator and consultant Mike Dakin, dissatisfied with the available instruments of the day, created Promana's Team Roles assessment. Using a statistically valid methodology to produce more definitive and reliable results than was obtainable by subjectively selecting a few factors and ignoring the rest, Dakin's contribution brought greater objectivity, and examined more behaviours (12) than previous offerings.
Common to BSPI and Promana's Team Roles
Both the BSPI and Promana's Team Roles focus on observable behaviours, not personality, and neither tool is considered or intended to be a psychometric test. While personality traits are said to be more or less constant, behaviour is prone to change as people adapt to circumstances and situations.
Behaviour is able to be described in concrete terms and used to predict future actions and conduct. Because of this, behavioural assessments provide more useful, verifiable and predictive information. Behaviour-based questionnaires may be used as a substitute for live assessment centres, whereas personality tests do not meet that need.
Promana's Team Roles and BSPI Differences
Time taken to complete: the BSPI questionnaire takes 15 to 20 minutes. The normal time to respond to Promana's Team Roles survey is between 5 and 15 minutes.
Quick-minded respondents easily complete in under 5 minutes – speed of response correlates with decisiveness of mind and promptness of action. The shortest time ever recorded for one Promana survey, 1 minute 45 seconds, was by a high performing, fast moving CEO.
Format: BSPI sorts role preferences by having each respondent distribute points among the role descriptions. The person ranks the nine roles in order of overall appeal, and then rates the top few in order of preference. This process discards the less favoured roles completely.
The Promana Team Roles format uses a paired comparison methodology that pairs action statements representing each of twelve roles, and the respondent is asked to choose one of each pair. The process allocates points to preferred roles at the expense of the unfavoured. This process ranks all roles in order of attraction.
Related team surveys
Promana’s complete suite includes five inter-related team development assessments – Team Roles, Team Focus, Levelling Up, Team Building, and Leading Edges. The design and constructs we employ make for easy detection of hidden strengths and limitations. Users are able to cross-reference surveys to find ways and means to improve team and group performance.
