| In a context of market globalisation and technological development, it can be advantageous to organise work not in function of individuals, but rather in function of teams in order to reinforce the effectiveness of the production of a good or a service. A work team refers to a collection of two or more individuals who are interdependent and collectively responsible to accomplish one or more tasks defined by the organisation. In order to accomplish properly a common task, team-mates have to demonstrate behaviours so as to assure a convergence and a co-ordination of individual efforts while maintaining their team. The object of this doctoral thesis consists in proposing and testing a multidimensional integrated conception of member behaviours named “internal functioning”.; Internal functioning (IF) is defined as behaviours that members show and that facilitate the fulfillment of a common task. The analysis of documentation reveals that IF contains seven distinct aspects at the conceptual level. The test of this conception, based on two samples counting a total of 134 teams (944 members), reveals that IF embraces two dimensions, namely interpersonal support and team work management. These two dimensions are positively related to performance. The results indicate that more the task interdependence is high, more the relationships between the dimensions of IF and performance are strong, corroborating the moderator role of this task characteristic.; In a multidimensional perspective of team effectiveness, it is appropriate to verify whether the dimensions of IF are related to other effectiveness criteria in addition to performance. The results show that interpersonal support is positively related to team viability and quality of group experience. Team work management is positively related to quality of group experience. Moreover task cohesion can be a mediator in the relationship between team work management and quality of group experience. Potency can mediate relations between, on the one hand, team work management and, on the other hand, performance and quality of group experience.; This doctoral thesis contributes significantly to the development of knowledge relative to work teams. Indeed, this research provides a solid theoretical basis for IF conceptualisation and a questionnaire demonstrating fairly good psychometric properties. Furthermore the dimensions of IF are likely to influence many effectiveness criteria of work teams. |
