Role

We explain what a role is in the social context and in a work team. In addition, we tell you what role-playing games are.

A police officer fulfills a specific role in directing vehicular traffic.
The role indicates the pre-established functions assigned to each person in a given situation.

What is a role?

A role or role It is the function that someone performs or the task that they fulfill within a certain context. It is a term from English rolein turn taken from French rolewith which they referred in the past to the characters played by an actor in a play. The history of the term goes back to Roman Antiquity, since it was called rotulus (“roll”, “rolled manuscript”) to the notes of the play that each actor had and that they had to memorize.

When talking about “roles”, therefore, reference is usually made to the pre-established functions assigned to those who participate in a project or initiative. For example, in a soccer team the playing positions are previously assigned (forward, midfielder, defense, etc.), but when the referee expels one of the team's players from the game, the others must organize to play the role. role of the absent, that is, to fill his space, to fulfill his functions. The same occurs in other social, political, work or organizational contexts.

On the other hand, the term “role” also has less used meanings, such as “roll”, “parchment” or “list”. For example, in maritime jargon, it is called role a license granted to the captain of a vessel by local authorities, which contains a list of the crew on board.

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Social role

A man runs a marathon carrying his son's stroller.
Over time, roles can change and give rise to new expected and valued behaviors.

The social roles are behavioral patterns determined by society and imposed on individuals depending on the situation, context and their personal characteristics.

Gender roles are a type of social role that is imposed on people depending on the sex with which they were born, and that assigns them a way of behaving, a way of speaking, clothing, among other matters. For example, in past times, men were given the duty of being family providers and women were given the duty of staying at home taking care of the children and cleaning the home.

The roles seek to regulate human behavior in certain situations of daily life. They are transmitted from generation to generation as part of the individual's socialization process: at school, in the family, in the media.

Society tends to reward compliance with pre-established roles and punish those who go against them, so they in turn fulfill a normative function in society. Still, the roles tend to transform over time and give rise to new modes of behavior or new ways of understanding those that already existed.

Roles in a work group

In a work team, the functions performed are usually distributed to specialize the work and achieve a high level of cooperation. That is to say, Each member does what they do best and in this way they can move faster towards their goals proposals.

This system gives rise to different roles or roles that must be played within the work group, and which have been the subject of various management scholars, including the British consultant and researcher Raymond Meredith Belbin (1926-). Belbin defined nine standard roles in every work group, divided into three general categories:

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Action roles. They are those who carry out the tasks, that is, who materialize things. There are three different roles in this category, which are:

  • Driving. Responsible for starting the processes, establishing the appropriate environment for this and gathering the necessary resources.
  • Implementer. Responsible for carrying out the processes and making them fully developed, that is, reaching their maximum potential.
  • Finisher. Responsible for closing the processes and guaranteeing that they reach the pre-established goal.

Social roles. They are those that have to do with interpersonal interactions and relationships, communication and group spirit. There are three different roles in this category, which are:

  • Coordinator. Responsible for managing the work from a macro or micro point of view, as necessary, and for communication between the parties.
  • Resource researcher. In charge of negotiations between the parties and providing each with the resources required or discovering those that may be needed.
  • Cohesive. In charge of the morale and spirit of the work team, creating synergy and a group identity.

Mental roles. They are those that involve planning, reflection, control and problem solving. In this category there are three different roles, which are:

  • Brain. In charge of planning, projection and visualization of work, as well as conceiving new plans.
  • Evaluator monitor. In charge of the dynamics of feedback and control, to correct what does not work and enhance what does work.
  • Specialist. Responsible for solving problems through the application of specialized knowledge of the area.

role play

The character from the video game Fallout 76 is seen on a screen.
In the world of video games, a role-playing game allows you to manage a character's decisions.

role playing games are a type of group board game, in which each player plays a character (called “player character” or PC) who is part of a story, usually fantastic. This story is told by another player who acts as narrator and controls the “non-player characters” (NPCs).

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These games usually have complex dynamics and exhaustive rules to represent chance and recreate possible situations in the story, also being able to establish more or less theatrical game dynamics.

Role-playing games also exist in the world of video games, where the term is understood differently: are those video games in which the player accompanies a character throughout an adventure manages your decisions and your development as a character.

Continue with: Social environment

References

  • “Role” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
  • “Etymology of role” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
  • “Social role” in Wikipedia.