Team members have their own roles and responsibilities, as roles determine how you can contribute to the team and its performance. Roles are shared expectations of how group members will fulfill the requirements of their position.

When interacting with the team, you learn the team’s expectations—its norms. People often have multiple roles within the same position. For example, a professor may have the roles of teacher, researcher, consultant, adviser, and committee member.

When leaders interact with employees, they can use directive behavior, supportive behavior, or both. These same two dimensions can also be performed by group members as they interact. When used to relate to group interactions, they are commonly called task roles and maintenance roles. A third category, called self-interest roles, is often added.

The group’s task roles are the things group members do and say that directly aid in the accomplishment of its objective(s). Task roles focus on getting the job done (and influencing others to help). Task roles can be subclassified as: objective clarifiers, planners, organizers, leaders, and controllers. Clearly, task roles need to be fulfilled for the team to perform its functions.