Ce manuscrit présente trois chapitres distincts couvrant des sujets liés au fonctionnement et au rôle des conseils d’administration. Le premier chapitre étudie l’effet de la reconnaissance de l’expertise des administrateurs sur les opportunités de croissance de l’entreprise, en utilisant des prix de prestige obtenus par les administrateurs. Les résultats indiquent que la présence d’administrateurs primés dans les conseils d’administration entraîne de meilleures opportunités d’investissement. Le deuxième chapitre analyse l’impact du quota de femmes dans les conseils d’administration en France sur la valeur boursière des entreprises. Avant le quota, les investisseurs réagissent positivement aux annonces de nominations d’administratrices, en particulier pour les conseils d’administration majoritairement masculins. L’annonce de la promulgation de la loi le 27 janvier 2011 est considérée comme une bonne nouvelle sur le marché boursier, ce qui conduit les investisseurs à anticiper les recrutements de femmes résultant du quota. Le troisième chapitre traite de l’impact du quota sur le marché du travail des administrateurs. Les résultats indiquent que le quota a changé les pratiques de recrutement dans les conseils d’administration et que, de ce fait, il a amélioré la stabilité des correspondances entreprise-administrateur. / This dissertation presents three distinct chapters covering topics related to the functioning and the role of corporate boards. The first chapter studies the effect of the recognition of directors’ expertise on growth opportunities through directors’ receipt of prestigious awards. The results show that the presence of award-winners on boards leads to better investment opportunities. The second chapter analyzes the impact of a board gender quota in France on market valuation. Before the quota, investors respond positively to female director nominations, especially on male-dominated boards. The announcement of the enactment of the law on January 27, 2011, was viewed as positive news in the stock market, which leads to the anticipation of post-quota female appointments. The third chapter focuses on the impact of the quota on the labor market for corporate directors. The evidence suggests that, by changing the director search technology used by firms, the French quota has improved the stability of director-firm matches.

Ce travail de recherche a pour objectif de comprendre l’impact de la mise en place d’une approche relationnelle auprès de populations vulnérables sur les pratiques de dépistage du cancer. La problématique principale est la suivante : La mise en place d’une approche relationnelle en santé, via la présence de navigateurs auprès de populations vulnérables, permetelle d’améliorer la communication en prévention et son impact sur les pratiques de dépistage ? Ce travail fait suite au développement de dispositifs de prévention en santé visant à faire davantage participer au dépistage du cancer et réduire les inégalités sociales de santé. Ils testaient jusque-là la mise en place d’une approche relationnelle, prônant l’adaptation du profil du personnel en contact à une population vulnérable, sans toutefois tester l’effet des différentes caractéristiques de ce personnel. Les promoteurs de ces dispositifs, appelés « programmes de navigation », affirment que l’adaptation du profil du navigateur (chargé de prévention) à la population cible permet d’augmenter significativement la participation au dépistage. Cette adaptation se fait par le recrutement d’un chargé de prévention partageant des caractéristiques similaires avec la population cible (âge, genre, lieu d’habitation, etc.) et n’ayant pas nécessairement d’expertise en santé. Si l’efficacité des dispositifs mis en œuvre dans de précédentes expérimentations a été prouvée, rien n’est dit sur l’impact des caractéristiques des navigateurs. Un cadre théorique mobilisant les travaux en marketing des services et en marketing relationnel est proposé pour identifier les facteurs d’efficacité des programmes de navigation et, ainsi faisant, les caractéristiques des navigateurs. Pour cela, trois études empiriques sont menées. Les deux premières études (études 1 et 2) explorent la genèse d’un de ces dispositifs « ColoNav » afin d’en comprendre les tenants et les aboutissants. L’étude 1 mesure l’impact de ce dispositif sur la participation au dépistage du cancer colorectal et met en lien ces résultats avec le profil des personnels en contact recrutés. L’étude 2 analyse les données qualitatives de ce dispositif et met en lumière les différents facteurs ayant pu avoir un impact dans son efficacité. L’étude 3 (expérimentation) mesure le réel impact de l’adaptation du profil (similarité et expertise) du personnel en contact à une population vulnérable sur l’intention de participation au dépistage du cancer colorectal et sur l’intention de le recommander. L’étude 1 montre que la présence du navigateur pour promouvoir le dépistage du cancer colorectal semble avoir un effet sur la participation à celui-ci. Cependant, les conditions de l’étude ne permettent pas de conclure de façon satisfaisante au seul effet de l’adaptation du profil du chargé de prévention (étude 1). Ces résultats nous ont amenée à nous interroger sur le réel impact de cette adaptation et sur l’existence d’autres facteurs que le profil pouvant impacter les résultats de ce genre de dispositif. L’étude 2 nous a permis de constater l’existence de trois principaux facteurs et de les analyser en profondeur (étude 2). Ainsi, au profil du personnel en contact s’ajoutent son investissement dans la relation avec les personnes de la population cible (choix en matière de communication et capacité à s’adapter à son interlocuteur) et ses relations avec son environnement de travail (acteurs et population cible) qui viennent modérer son action (la faciliter ou la compliquer). Enfin, les résultats de l’étude 3 permettent de conclure à l’impact positif significatif de la similarité et de l’expertise sur l’intention de dépistage et de recommandation. Les conclusions de cette étude complètent celles faites pour le dispositif ColoNav. ... / The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of implementing a relational approach on vulnerable populations regarding cancer screening practices. The main issue was as follows: Does the implementation of a relational approach in health, through the presence of navigators with vulnerable populations, improve prevention communication and its impact on screening practices?This research is a follow-up to health prevention devices which aim was to increase participation in cancer screening and thus reduce social inequalities in health. Until now, they tested the implementation of a relational approach advocating the adaptation of the frontline employee’s profile to a vulnerable population, without however testing the effect of the different characteristics of this employee. These devices, called "navigation programs", claim that adapting the navigator’s profile (prevention officer) to a target population significantly increases the participation in screening. This adaptation is done by recruiting a prevention officer who shares similar characteristics with the target population (age, gender, place of residence, etc.) and does not necessarily have expertise in healthcare. If the effectiveness of the devices implemented in previous experiments has been proven, nothing is said about the impact of the navigators’ characteristics. A theoretical framework mobilizing research in Services marketing and Relationship marketing is proposed to identify the efficiency factors ofnavigation programs, thus, the characteristics of navigators. For that, three empirical studies have then been conducted.The first two studies (studies 1 and 2) explore the genesis of one of these devices, "ColoNav", in order to understand the reasons and outcomes. Study 1 measures the impact of this device on participation in colorectal cancer screening and links these results to the profile of the frontline employees recruited. Study 2 analyzes the qualitative data of this device and highlights the various factors that may have had an impact on its effectiveness. Study 3 (experimentation) measures the real impact of the adapting of the frontline employee’s profile (similarity and expertise) to a vulnerable population on the intention to participate to colorectal cancer screening and on the intention to recommend it. The first study shows that the presence of the navigator promoting colorectal cancer screening appears to affect participation to it. However, the conditions of the study do not allow to conclude satisfactorily on the only effect of the adaptation of the prevention officer’s profile (study 1). These results raise questions about the real impact of the adaptation of the frontline employee’s profile (similarity and expertise) and the existence of other factors than the profile that could impact the results of this kind of device. Study 2 allows us to find three main factors and analyzed them in depth (study 2). Thereby, the frontline employee’s profile complemented by his investment in the relationship with the target population (his communication choices and his ability to adapt to his nterlocutor) as well as by his relationship with his work environment (actors and target population), which moderates its action (facilitate or complicate it). Finally, the results of the experiment (study 3) allow us to conclude that there is a significant and positive impact of similarity and expertise on screening and recommendation intentions. The conclusions of study 3 complement those of the ColoNav device. They confirm the fact that in the context of the implementation of a relational approach, such as ColoNav, other factors than the frontline employee’s profile are to be considered in the effectiveness of a health prevention program.

Du 1er au 5 décembre 1930, un brouillard épais se répand dans la vallée de la Meuse. Ils sont nombreux à y laisser leur vie. Un an plus tard, des experts rendent leurs conclusions : le charbon et les composés soufrés de sa combustion sont mis en cause. Mais comment du « charbon » participe à la production de brouillards et rejoint, jusqu’à tuer, les poumons de ceux qui se sont retrouvés contraints de le respirer ? Ces liens « charbon - brouillards toxiques - poumons » n’ont rien d’évident. Ce travail tente de reconstituer les conditions historiques de leurs constructions. En considérant cette catastrophe dans le temps long de sa production ; en suivant la piste des matières de sa constitution et des assemblages technico-sociaux nécessaires à leur transformation ; en étudiant le rôle et les effets des pratiques savantes, il permet de comprendre la transformation conjointe, par l’industrialisation, des corps et des environnements et la production de nouveaux phénomènes météorologiques. / From the 1st to the 5th December 1930, a thick fog spread in the Meuse valley. Many losing their lives. One year later, experts came to conclusions: coal and sulphuric compound of it combustion were implicated. But how does "coal" come to participate in the production of fogs and to befoul, fatally, the lungs of those forced to inhale it ? The « coal - toxic fog - lungs » links is not obvious. This study aims to reconstitute the historic conditions of their construction. By considering this disaster over the period necessary for its production - as a process and not as an hiatus - ; by following the trail of the materials of its constitution - their progress and the technical, social, political and discursive assemblies - necessary for their transformation; by studying the role and the effects of the scientific practices, this work allows an understanding of the joint transformation, by the industrialization, of bodies and environments and the production of new meteorological phenomena.

Alors que la société, notamment le grand public et les décideurs politiques, compte sur les experts pour lui fournir des connaissances scientifiques fiables, ceux-ci sont régulièrement en désaccord les uns avec les autres. Pourquoi, alors, faudrait-il leur faire confiance et se fier à leur jugement ? Pour y répondre, j’explore différentes causes des désaccords entre experts à travers le concept du pluralisme scientifique – le pluralisme explicatif et méthodologique, ainsi que la variété de normes épistémiques et non-épistémiques qui influencent la production de la connaissance scientifique – et les dynamiques sociales et politiques dans lesquelles le savoir expert est créé. J’argumente que les désaccords sont, dans le cadre de la recherche scientifique dite « académique », épistémiquement bénéfiques sur le long terme. Avec l’exemple du processus de l’élaboration des politiques publiques, j’explique ensuite comment l’utilisation du savoir scientifique à des fins pratiques crée des problèmes susceptibles d’exacerber les désaccords entre experts, mais que souvent, cela est dû en grande partie à des facteurs hors de leur contrôle. Enfin, j’argumente que cette utilisation particulière du savoir scientifique contribue à la méfiance du public envers les experts lorsqu’ils sont en désaccord, et je présente des conditions sous lesquelles il est justifié de leur faire confiance. / While society, notably the general public and policy makers, count on experts to provide it with reliable scientific knowledge, the latter regularly disagree with each other. Why, then, should we trust them and rely on their judgements? To answer, I explore different causes of disagreements between experts through the concept of scientific pluralism – explanatory and methodological pluralism, and the variety of epistemic and non-epistemic norms that influence the production of scientific knowledge – and the social and political dynamics in which expert knowledge is made. I argue that disagreements are, in the context of so-called “academic” scientific research, epistemically beneficial in the long term. With the example of the policy-making process, I then explain how the use of scientific knowledge for practical purposes creates problems that can exacerbate disagreements between experts, but that often, this is due in large part to factors beyond their control. Finally, I argue that this particular use of scientific knowledge contributes to public mistrust of experts when they disagree, and I present some conditions under which it is justified to trust them.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Satoris S. Culbertson / Performance appraisals are an important component to any organization’s performance management system. They require supervisors to observe and retain information regarding employee performance. This study sought to investigate the effects of appraisal purpose in this process. This extension and replication of Williams, DeNisi, Meglino, and Cafferty’s (1986) lab study of appraisal purpose investigated whether designating an employee for a positive outcome results in lenient performance ratings and vice-versa for a negative designation. This outcome would indicate assimilation, whereby the designation acts as an anchor creating bias in the direction of the anchor. However, the negative and positive designations may both result in leniency, indicating a universal tendency toward leniency when memory for performance is limited. Furthermore, I investigated whether making a deservedness rating for each employee would result in less lenient or severe ratings, relative to the designation conditions. Finally, I investigated whether self-reported rater expertise would moderate the assimilation effect. A total of 108 undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university viewed confederates performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a dummy and were instructed to observe performance in order to make a designation (positive or negative) or deservedness rating, or were given no instructions (control). They made an initial decision and were then asked to return two days later and rate each confederate’s performance again. Consistent with previous findings, raters making positive designations tended to give lenient ratings, relative to other conditions. Furthermore, as expected, those making negative designations gave relatively severe ratings. Finally, the results also partially supported my expectation that rater expertise in the performance domain moderates the biasing effects of appraisal purpose. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Contexte : malgré les particularités de l’environnement de pratique de la médecine d’urgence, il n’existe pas de recherches spécifiquement menées sur la thématique du raisonnement clinique dans cette spécialité. Nous avons souhaité mieux comprendre comment les médecins urgentologues raisonnent dans le cadre de la prise en charge initiale des patients. Méthode : une posture épistémologique interprétative a été adoptée à travers un devis de recherche qualitatif de type ethnographique. Des entretiens ont été réalisés auprès de médecins urgentologues experts, à l’issue de la prise en charge d’un patient réel. Ces entretiens reposaient notamment sur la visualisation de l’enregistrement vidéo en perspective subjective située, obtenu grâce à l'usage d'une microcaméra fixée sur la tempe ou la branche de lunettes des praticiens. Résultats : les hypothèses diagnostiques sont générées très précocement par les médecins, parfois même avant la rencontre avec le patient, sur la base de la prise en compte d’un nombre très limité d’informations, pour certaines contextuelles. Cinq hypothèses étaient en moyenne générées lors de la rencontre initiale et au moins une était une hypothèse de gravité. Aucune n’était formellement éliminée ou validée sans résultats d’examens complémentaires. Un jugement précoce quant à la gravité de la situation permettait également aux médecins d’orienter leurs intentions initiales vers des buts diagnostiques ou thérapeutiques. Les experts raisonnaient le plus souvent de manière intuitive. Ils prenaient en compte les spécificités de leur environnement professionnel en étant, par exemple, vigilants au temps, au caractère potentiellement évolutif de l’état clinique du malade et au devenir d’aval de celui-ci. Conclusion : l’identification du raisonnement clinique des médecins urgentologues offre des perspectives importantes en matière de pratique de la médecine d’urgence, et de formation des résidents dans cette discipline. La méthode originale de recueil des données pourrait en outre être réexploitée dans le cadre de travaux ultérieurs.

The Arctic—warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet—is a source of striking imagery of amplified environmental change in our time, and has come to serve as a spatial setting for climate crisis discourse. The recent alterations in the Arctic environment have also been perceived by some observers as an opportunity to expand economic exploitation. Heightened geopolitical interest in the region and its resources, contradicted by calls for the protection of fragile Far North ecosystems, has rendered the Arctic an arena for negotiating human interactions with nature, and for reflecting upon the planetary risks and possibilities associated with the advent and expansion of the Anthropocene—the proposed new epoch in Earth history in which humankind is said to have gained geological agency and become the dominant force over the Earth system. With the Arctic serving as a nexus of crosscutting analytical themes spanning contemporary history (the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century until 2015), this dissertation examines defining characteristics of the Anthropocene and how the concept, which emerged from the Earth system science community, impacts ideas and assumptions in historiography, social sciences and the environmental humanities, including the fields of environmental history, crisis management and security studies, political geography, and science and technology studies (STS). The primary areas of empirical analysis and theoretical investigation encompass constructivist perspectives and temporal conceptions of environmental and climate crisis; the role of science and expertise in performing politics and shaping social discourse; the geopolitical significance of telecoupling—a concept that reflects the interconnectedness of the Anthropocene and supports stakeholder claims across wide spatial scales; and implications of the recent transformation in humankind’s long duration relationship with the natural world. Several dissertation themes were observed in practice at the international science community of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard, where global change is made visible through a concentration of scientific activity. Ny-Ålesund is furthermore a place of geopolitics, where extra-regional states attempt to enhance their legitimacy as Arctic stakeholders through the performance of scientific research undertakings, participation in governance institutions, and by establishing a physical presence in the Far North. This dissertation concludes that this small and remote community represents an Anthropocene node of global environmental change, Earth system science, emergent global governance, geopolitics, and stakeholder construction in an increasingly telecoupled world.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engine of economic growth and job creation. Governments have devoted considerable resources to increase their competitiveness in the market. Several design support programmes (DSPs) have emerged from this investment to promote design as a strategic resource for innovation and business growth. Although existing research indicates that an effective use of design can enhance the business performance, a lack of interest amongst SMEs to work with designers is cited in several studies. Despite the great amount of money, energy and time that has been spent on design support for SMEs, there is still a lack of knowledge about effective delivery and evaluation. This thesis focuses on the problem of finding better ways to assist SMEs with design for economic growth by evaluating the effectiveness of design support for SMEs. This research, therefore, has examined the activities of UK-based DSPs, investigated the expertise of design consultancies and inquired about the self-image of designers in order to expand the knowledge of design support for SMEs. The research applied an interpretive paradigm, where multiple realities are recognised as socially constructed. Data was gathered through interviews with individuals representing DSPs, SMEs, design consultancies and government support agencies assisting SMEs. Observation of business support events and publicly available documents were used as additional sources. A thematic analysis and a systematic metaphor analysis were employed to examine the resulting data. The research has highlighted a number of key issues that are pivotal to the success of design support for SMEs. This PhD research also proposes two explanatory frameworks to contribute to design theory and practice: a seven-step evaluation framework for planning and evaluating the outcomes of DSPs and a re-framing of the generalist-specialist dilemma that can inform the activities of design consultancies and DSPs and can guide designers to improve their expertise.

This dissertation consists of two largely stand-alone chapters. The first chapter presents a goal-activation theory of the antecedents of advice taking. I propose that three separate categories of goals - decision quality, social standing, and emotional well-being - influence receptivity to advice. Decision quality goals increase striving toward a good outcome in the decision for which the advice was given. Social standing goals focus attention on the social effects of the act of taking or rejecting the advice. Emotional well-being goals are related to establishing or maintaining a desired affective state. Each of these goals can be activated by attributes of the situation, advice, advisee, and advisor. Because they increase striving toward different ends, the goals direct attention to disparate advice-related cues and affect the evaluation of those cues. This results in different responses to advice. At the current time, nearly all research on advice taking has addressed decision quality goals and related cues. By presenting this theory, I hope to increase interest in a wider set of antecedents of advice taking. The second chapter reports a series of studies testing hypotheses derived from the theory presented in the first chapter. Specifically, I contrast the effects of an advisor's relative expertise to effects of the advisor's relative hierarchical position on advice taking. I hypothesize that the effects of expertise are driven by decision quality goals, while the effects of relative hierarchical position relate to social standing goals. I further hypothesize that advisees' conceptions of appropriate leader-follower relations (specifically, follower co-production role orientation; Carsten & Uhl-Bien, 2012) activate social standing goals, but not decision quality goals. Lastly, I propose that outcome accountability increases attention to decision quality goals and reduces attention to social standing goals.

Experts in the field of molecular and cellular biology (MCB) use domain-specific reasoning strategies to navigate the unique complexities of the phenomena they study and creatively explore problems in their fields. One primary goal of instruction in undergraduate MCB is to foster the development of these domain-specific reasoning strategies among students. However, decades of evidence-based research and many national calls for undergraduate instructional reform have demonstrated that teaching and learning complex fields like MCB is difficult for instructors and learners alike. Therefore, how do students develop rich understandings of biological mechanisms? It is the aim of this dissertation work to explore features of expertise and knowledge building in undergraduate MCB by investigating knowledge organization and problem-solving strategies. Semi-structured clinical think-aloud interviews were conducted with introductory and upper-division students in MCB. Results suggest that students must sort ideas about molecular mechanism into appropriate mental categories, create connections using function-driven and mechanistic rather than associative reasoning, and create nested and overlapping ideas in order to build a nuanced network of biological ideas. Additionally, I characterize the observable components of generative multi-level mechanistic reasoning among undergraduate MCB students constructing explanations about in two novel problem-solving contexts. Results indicate that like MCB experts, students are functionally subdividing the overarching mechanism into functional modules, hypothesizing and instantiating plausible schema, and even flexibly consider the impact of mutations across ontological and biophysical levels. However "filling in" these more abstract schema with molecular mechanisms remains problematic for many students, with students instead employing a range of developing mechanistic strategies. Through this investigation of expertise and knowledge building, I characterize several of the ways in which knowledge integration and generative explanation building are productively constrained by domain-specific features, expand on several discovered barriers to productive knowledge organization and mechanistic explanation building, and suggest instructional implications for undergraduate learning.