Testing the SMT and Belbin inventories in top management teams

This article focuses on, examines and contrasts two managerial inventories: the Spectral management theory (SMT) and the Belbin team roles inventory. The SMT inventory is one of the only approaches that involves not only a management typology, but also learning roles as well as team assessment. The theory leads to eight such types of managerial style, measured through an analytical instrument designed to enable people to identify their personal orientations. Belbin’s inventory is focused on team roles, prescribing nine options. Both were used to analyse members of top management teams in leading UK management buy‐outs. The analysis undertaken serves to enhance self awareness in the individual as well as team and organisational effectiveness. At the team level, it highlights the antecedents of successful teams, how and why they work together in harmony or dissonance, and what other teams may learn from the exercise.