The Importance of Team Roles in Organizing Collective Work

The issue of forming work teams according to an individual's characteristic roles are discussed in this article. In the first part of the article the achievements of Western management science and practice in organizing the selection of employees for a team and the dominating practice in Lithuania are dealt with. One of the main aims in forming a team have to be the necessary conditions to enable the natural qualities, abilities, knowledge and interests of an employee to be expressed. Only this way is it possible to achieve the effective performance of an employee's individual role and to ensure the execution of the organizational objectives. The surveys of different specialists reveal that many different roles are performed in any group where the work is performed in companionship. Therefore lots of attention has to be paid to the concept of the personal roles. The theoretical aspects of R.M.Belbin's viewpoint to group forming, according to which in 2002-2006 the author's research was performed in some Lithuanian higher schools, are discussed in this article. In the second part of the article the students' team roles survey results according to the respondent's gender, selected study form etc. are discussed and also the most characteristic roles are mentioned. The survey enabled the author to make conclusions which can be useful for students when choosing a study programme and for employees when forming a work team.