Preferred team roles of construction professionals in the South African construction industry

In the delivery of construction projects, different participants are brought together. The successful delivery of such project depends on the ability of these participants to function as a team. Identifying each individual's preferred team role is crucial for the smooth running of the team and successful delivery of the project. This paper presents the result of an assessment of the team roles of construction professionals in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipalities, Gauteng, South Africa. The study adopted the Belbin's Theory on teamwork, and a questionnaire was used to gather data from construction professionals. Data gathered were analyzed using appropriate descriptive statistics. The study reveals that the preferred team roles of these professionals are Team-worker and Completer, while the least preferred role are Plant, and Specialist roles. Although the delivery of construction project is team oriented which can be responsible for construction professionals to naturally fall within the "team-worker" role, it should be understood that some workers are bound to fit in better within other team roles as a result of some inherent abilities. Therefore construction leaders should know about these team roles so that they can find out the type of behaviors they have in their teams.