Changing the Way We Work

How many problems at work arise from the way in which jobs are set up? An alternative system is needed, where jobs can grow and develop: where communication about the work can flow up as easily as down. This work describes an approach incorporating colour-coding and information technology.

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.