Interdependance entre les equipiers: Dimensions du concept et relations avec l'efficacite groupale

Team members' interdependence is a central concept in research on work teams since it appears to be both a characteristic of a team and a determining factor of its effectiveness. This study has three objectives: (1) Define team members' interdependence, and more specifically the postulated three dimensions of this concept (task, goal and feedback), as well as verify the factorial structure and analysis level; (2) Determine the predictive capacity of the interdependency dimensions to explain two dimensions of work-team effectiveness, namely performance and quality of the group experience; (3) Verify the moderating and mediating role of potency in the relationship between team members' interdependence and group performance.; Questionnaires were given to the members of 63 teams (n = 568), as well as their immediate supervisors (n = 63) and an outside observer for each team (n = 63), at 13 organizations in the Québec health and social services sector in order to collect the data analyzed in this thesis project. The thesis is written in the form of three articles, each addressing one of the above-mentioned objectives.; The first article defines team members' interdependence as well as three dimensions of this concept postulated in the literature, namely task, goal and feedback interdependence. An exploratory factor analysis supports the anticipated three-dimensional structure of the concept. The relevance of group level of analysis for each of these dimensions is also proven.; The second article examines the links between the three interdependence dimensions evaluated by the team members (taken individually and in interaction with each other) and two criteria of effectiveness (performance and quality of the group experience) evaluated by three sources: the teammates, their immediate supervisor and an outside observer. The results indicate that goal interdependence plays the most important role in explaining team effectiveness, whereas the task and feedback dimensions of interdependence appear less essential. Most of the anticipated effects of interaction between the interdependence dimensions as an explanation for team effectiveness were not confirmed.; Finally, the third article verifies the moderating and mediating role of potency in the relationship between the three interdependence dimensions and the performance assessed by the team members and their immediate supervisor. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses support the hypothesis that potency has a complete mediating effect in the relationship between two interdependence dimensions (task and goal) and the performance assessed by the team members. This hypothesis is not sustained, however, when performance is evaluated by the immediate supervisor. In contrast, the results do not support a moderating role for potency in the relationship between the interdependency dimensions and performance.