Changing the way we work

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of colour plates (p. vii)
• Preface (p. ix)
• The colours of Work Roles (p. xiii)
• 1 Order and disorders (p. 1)
• 2 The true nature of a modern job (p. 8)
• 3 Reclassifying work: tasks versus responsibilities (p. 16)
• 4 'So what's the job?' (p. 25)
• 5 Overcoming initial problems (p. 34)
• 6 Job casting and job briefing (p. 40)
• 7 Improving communications (p. 48)
• 8 Quantifying the way we work (p. 57)
• 9 Managing the feedback (p. 63)
• 10 Creating a new culture (p. 69)
• 11 Fostering team empowerment (p. 76)
• 12 From competence to excellence (p. 81)
• 13 Team roles and colour codes (p. 88)
• 14 Managers and leaders revisited (p. 94)
• 15 A way forward (p. 102)
• Appendix 1 A glossary of terms (p. 108)
• Appendix 2 Work Roles - audit of existing practices in job setting (p. 110)
• Index (p. 113)

Author notes provided by Syndetics