Changing the Way We Work

How many problems at work arise from the way in which jobs are set up? Either people don't have a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities, spending time and energy disentangling them from those of their co-workers or they are hemmed in by job specifications that allow no room for movement and initiative.

An alternative system is needed, where jobs can grow and develop: where communication about the work can flow up as easily as down. Dr Belbin describes a radical approach incorporating colour-coding and information technology derived from experiments now being undertaken in three countries. Workset is a new means of delivering greater efficiency in a dynamic process that equally involves managers and jobholders.

Dr R. Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of team-role theory for his widely-read Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail and its successor Team Roles at Work, obtained his first and higher degree at Cambridge University. Later, in a research, lecturing or consulting capacity, he has visited and worked in many countries. In 1988 he founded Belbin Associates which produces Interplace, a computer-based Human Resource Management System, now used world-wide.