Building Effective Research Team Processes

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A research group, sometimes called a study team, is usually a group of individuals who specialize in the same field, usually with the same educational background, working closely on the particular topic or area of study. Although it was once possible for one researcher to serve as a part of a team, most groups are made up of at least two researchers who can each perform his/her specific tasks to the best of their abilities. Usually, the main researcher holds the chairmanship position while a second individual, often referred to as the coach, usually holds a regular appointment with the other members of the team. The job of the coach is to assist the main researcher by encouraging him/her, supporting him/her, and helping him/her with his/her data analysis and writing up reports. It is also the job of the coach to point out potential problems or areas where further study might be needed.

Research groups come in various forms. For example, there are workshop teams and seminars or workshops. Workshop teams are usually formed when a set of people are doing an investigation that requires gathering knowledge and information that will be useful in some way to the other participants. The gathering may include discussions or presentations by experts. Seminar or workshop teams are formed for specific topics, such as improving management effectiveness, working with diversity issues, improving productivity, or presenting in public. These team roles can also be applied to projects that require building relationships between people from different backgrounds and experiences.

There is a certain amount of structure to successful research teams SBB Research Group. The structure should provide opportunities for all involved to contribute to the overall progress of the research goal, as well as for the team members to understand their role and how their contributions affect the research goal. The research goal is the outcome of the entire project. Therefore, the focus of the research group should be on meeting the research goal and not on achieving some kind of "feel good" result that does not contribute to the research goal. This goal is most effectively met by involving diverse and, in some cases, even competing viewpoints.

Belbin and Meedithbelbin describe four main means of defining and organizing research teams. These four principal means have been described by others as four key principles of establishing effective team processes. These are the shared responsibility, the shared vision, competence and style, as well as the balanced scorecard. Each of these principle concepts is illustrated in the following way by Belbin and Meedithbelbin.

Shared responsibility refers to a set of activities that involve all the team members, rather than focusing on a single member. For example, in a large research project, the manager may be considered the shared team leader because he has overall responsibility for the project, including its budget, scope, staff, and priorities. The manager can assign various team roles to different individuals within his team to execute his project-related decisions. If, for example, the manager considers that his team members have certain areas of specialization, he can select team role definitions that reflect this so that each individual contributes to the overall strategy. Thus, he can ensure that all the team members understand what they are responsible for and share the accountability for the achievement of the team's overall goals.

Shared vision is related to the shared responsibility principle, but it is not essentially related to responsibility. It refers to the idea that all the team members are working to achieve some common purpose or goal. In other words, the team role definitions here deal more with aligning the vision of the team to the desired outcome. While all the individual team members are concerned with their own personal success, the shared vision of the group serves as the motivation to work collaboratively towards this end.