Quelle est l’influence de l’identification à l’équipe dans les équipes interdisciplinaires? : étude des types d’identification, des processus d’équipe et de la performance

Diversity poses many challenges within teams, especially in regard to team performance. So far, some studies have shown a positive, negative and ever non-significant link between diversity and team performance. Since organizations are relying more often on interdisciplinary teams to help them solve the increasingly complex problems they face, it appears important to understand how diversity affects team performance. One fresh way to look at the problem is by looking at perceived diversity instead of objective diversity through the lenses of team identification. Indeed, strong team identification would attenuate perceived of diversity and would positively impact team performance. However, very few studies have investigated this phenomenon and, to our knowledge, none have looked at the impact of team identification influence on team processes nor looked at the impact of different types of identification on team performance. Due to a gap in the literature, the influence of identification within teams is not well understood. Moreover, the definition and measure of team identification has, so far, been plagued with numerous psychometric problems. This generates even more confusion surrounding the literature on team identification. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the impact of team identification on team performance within interdisciplinary teams and to clarify its definition and measurement. In order to do so, three studies were conducted using two independent samples and are presented in two articles. Taking root in organizational identification literature (e.g. Ashforth, & Mael, 1989; Christ, van Dick, Wagner & Stellmatcher, 2003; Edward, 2005; Tajfel, 1978), the first article proposes a clearer and integrated definition of identification in an organisational context. Following the clear conceptualization of team identification, a new scale was developed and validated. Two studies were conducted to assess its psychometric proprieties. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, plus reliability and validity analysis provide support for the scale’s reliability and validity. Practice and research implication are discussed in greater depth. Diversity is often considered an obstacle to team performance in interdisciplinary teams. Therefore, the second article addresses this issue by looking at the impact of types of identification (e.g. team and profession identification) on team performance. Drawing on Ilgen and collaborators’ (2005) model, the influence of these types of identification on team performance through their influence on team processes (e.g. conflict and collaboration) was evaluated. This study is the first to consider the interaction of different types of identification on team performance within interdisciplinary teams. Two hundred and sixty-eight Canadian healthcare employees answered five self-assessed questionnaires. Conditional process analyses (Hayes, 2013) show that team identification impacts team performance through its influence on collaboration, while neither identification to one’s profession nor conflicts impacts this relation. This study highlights the impact of different types of identification by considering their simultaneous effect. Moreover, in line with Mathieu et al.’s (2008) suggestion, different types of team processes were simultaneously evaluated (e.g. transition, action and interpersonal process). Practical implications that arise from this research includes team training (Salas et al., 2008), or team building activities (Klein et al. 2009) to improve collaboration, and heightened attractiveness of team membership (Dutton et al., 1994) or favoring transformational leadership (Hirst, et al., 2009) to foster greater team identification. A general discussion addresses the implications of the results presented in these two articles.

Keyphrases: Collaboration, Performance, Validation, Identification sociale, Team identification, Profession identification, Conflict, Social identification, Organizational commitment, Work context, Validity, Scale development