TASK ROLES

Robert Sutton points out that the success of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 to land with no fatalities when it
crashed, it is a good example of an effective team. (Sutton, 2009)

Studies show that individuals who are more aware of team roles and the behavior required for each role
perform better than individuals who do not.

This fact remains true for both student project teams as well as work teams, even after accounting for
intelligence and personality (Mumford et al., 2008).

Early research found that teams tend to have two categories of roles consisting of those related to the
tasks at hand and those related to the team’s functioning.