MNGT509: MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

MSc Management - Anais Anais - 31733942

Management Consultancy Project

Reflective Essay Word Count (1434 words)

Management Consultancy Project:

Reflective Essay on Teamwork using Belbins Team Roles
The management consultancy project that last for two weeks as part of Management in Practice
module was a meaningful experience for my postgraduate study. However, at first, I was quite
disappointed with the project in terms of the duration which is quite short and also the difference
regarding the scale of the clients businesses assigned to each groups, for instance Kendal
Nutricare which is considered as medium to big scale company compared to JF Hudson which is
a small company owned and run by one person. Prior to my study as a postgraduate student in
Lancaster University, I was employed in two boutique management consultant companies
focusing on human resources for almost three years. This experience helps me to start seeing the
project positively especially with the fact that JF Hudson, client that assigned to my group, is a
business that focus on design and installation service in agricultural industry which for me
considered as a new industry that will enhance my experience in management consultancy.
During this project, I worked with four other students which one of them has two years working
experience in an IT company while the other three do not have any working experience. The
purpose of this essay is to reflect on my role in the team during this project using Belbins (1997)
team roles theory and identify possible improvement and application in the context of my future
working place.

As part of the project, in the previous month before the project, I went to Rydal Hall with my
team in a leadership workshop session run by the MSc Management program team. Within this
session, there are five teamwork challenges which each member in all groups is assigned to lead
one of the challenges. After each challenge, there is a review session where all members discuss
on the strength and constructive feedback for the assigned leader of each session. I was leading
the team for a leadership poster challenge that should be finished within twenty minutes where
I propose to spend the first five minutes to discuss the content and finish the poster in fifteen
minutes which agreed by all members. Then, I divided the task into picture searching, cutting,
sticking, writing, drawing and colouring. The team worked well and finished on time. The
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facilitator acknowledged our work and also praised our teamwork and as the leader of the
session, I felt that I have done my best and I felt happy. After all the five challenges were done
along with each leaders review, final review was held. During this final review session, all
members in the team think that I was the best example in showing leadership skill due to my
communication, time management, task delegating and decision making skill. Therefore, during
the first group meeting of the consultancy project, I was appointed as representative or
communicator based on my skill that they have seen in Rydal Hall, my working experience and
also my English skill. However, this communicator role is considered as functional role which
distinguished from team roles. As explained by Wilson (2013) who described functional roles as
those that relate to a persons job or function in organization and distinguished from team roles.
The definition of team role is a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a
particular way (Belbin, 2000). The Belbin team role theory was developed through a number of
years at Henley Management College and is based on empirical observations on team behaviour.
Unlike most personality tests a Belbin team role is not a definition or judgment of how a person
is, but only a characterization of how the person acts in a given group. The surprising discovery
was the great importance of functions that were not strictly connected to the task to be carried
out. It was not enough to gather a number of very intelligent people who knew a lot about the
topic that the team was working on, for them to be a winning team (Godskesen, 2009). The
different functions to be taken care of in a group are all of equal importance even though some
are social and communicative while others are more technical and academic. Belbin have
operationalized these insights in a theory of nine team roles. According to the Belbin (2004) most
people have between two and four natural roles and in teamwork in practice each person often
covers several roles. During this project, I covered three roles which are coordinator, shaper and
resource investigator. Coordinator described as mature, confident, a good chairperson who
clarifies goals, promotes decision-making and delegates well (Belbin, 2004). Then, shaper
described as challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure type of person who has the drive and
courage to overcome obstacles (Belbin, 2004). I was highly motivated in this project since it is
such a long time that I have not work on a real case. My excitement helped me in pulled the
group together to work towards several goals that we have discussed in each group meeting. I
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also spot individuals talents and use them to pursue group objectives. As one of the example,
one of the member in the team is a Chinese girl who studied marketing during her bachelor
degree and I observed that she is quite active in several social media, so I offered her to handle
the social media marketing part which is one of the focus in our project. All other member
supported my idea and she agreed and looked happy with the task that she got. It is really
effective regarding the task delegating process which help us move on to the next agenda during
the meeting.

Resource investigator is an enthusiastic, communicative person who explores opportunities and

develops contacts (Belbin, 2004). Within this project, I was assigned as communicators for the
client, mentor and the team itself. During the client meeting I lead the discussion and sometime
when someone in my team was struggling in communicating their idea or question to the client,
I helped them by paraphrasing their sentence. I also act as negotiator, for instance, I lead the
team to negotiate about clients request to create a promotional video which is not realistic
considering the project is only for two weeks. So I offered another solution, instead of asking the
team to create the video which might be resulted in a standard or even low quality and it also
unrealistic considering the time, it is better for him to use Fiverr service where he can hire
someone to produce a professional and high quality video starting from only five pounds. During
the presentation, I showed him the sample video in Fiverr where he saw a sophisticated
computer graphics video and really excited on Fiverr quality with such an affordable price. My
assertiveness, knowledge and communication skill really help in the smoothness of the
negotiation and communication process with the client.

However, as coordinator, shaper and resource allocator, I can be headstrong and emotional in
response to disappointment or frustration (Belbin, 2004). There is a moment when I feel
disappointed on one member of my team who was not finished in researching her part which
consequently hinder the progress of the project. At that time, my negative emotional response
was affecting the mood of the team which is not effective during the meeting. However, in the
next couple hour when she told me that she did not finish in researching her part because she
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did not really understand some part, it made me feel bad for being emotional without asking her
reason in the first place. Therefore, it was clear that I should have been more careful with my
emotion since being emotional only worsen the condition. I also reflected that I might not be
clear while dividing the task and failed to make sure that all members understand with the
assigned task since Varney (1989) cautions that negative conflict can destroy a team quickly and
often arises from poor planning. Therefore, in the future, if this kind of issue raise in my work
place while I am leading a team or just being part of a team, rather than being emotional, I will
ask for clarification in the first place and act on what is important. I will also make sure that my
colleagues and I personally understand the task and remind them and also myself that it is better
to seek help as soon as possible before the deadline so that it will be more effective rather than
ask for help when it supposed to be collected already.

References
Belbin, M. (1997). Changing The Way We Work. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Belbin, M. (2000). Beyond the Team. Oxford: Butterewoth-Heinneman.
Belbin, M. (2004). Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail. Amsterdam: ButterewothHeinneman.
Godskesen, M. (2009). Improving Teamwork Abilities Across Cultural Differences: Belbin group
role theory applied. Lyngby: Technical University of Denmark
Varney, G. (1989). Building Productive Teams. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Wilson, F. (2014). Organizational Behavior and Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.