The thesis aims to explore the effect of team dynamics on team and organisational outcomes. Dynamics is a broad term that encompasses all the processes and attitudes that exist between team members and influence the direction of team's performance. Trust, conflict and behavioural integration comprise psychological facets of teamwork and are amongst the most common dynamics of a team. The current study aims to shed light on the perceptions of board members about the level of conflict, trust and behavioural integration during board meetings, which comprise the most critical forum of the group. Trust, conflict and behavioural integration are the primary attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions that arise within the board and encompass the core aspects of teamwork. There is a gap in the literature for examining the role of social-psychological processes and interactions between the board members because access to the boardroom is difficult and the researchers are forced to turn their attention on secondary data and proxies for board behaviors. Although that board of directors is an upper echelons group of executives who can ensure the long-term survival of the organisations, there is scarce of research in studying boards from a team perspective. Until today, we have limited knowledge of team processes, such as conflict, both inside the boardrooms and in the context of strategy implementation. The literature review in this thesis is drawn from multiple disciplines, including management, psychology and sociology, which enable us to gain a deep understanding of team's dynamics. The methodology has been based on a positivist approach since the focus is centered around the data collection process and the statistical interpretation of the findings. Primary data was collected from board members in Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. The data was collected with the use of survey method and the findings are based on 186 usable responses. The Nordic corporate governance model remains still the less known outside the Nordic region (Thomsen, 2016) but this thesis postulates that valuable lessons can emanate from its study. The study of the Nordic model could give us useful lessons for the roles of the board and the structure of their organisations. The statistical analysis of the model involved: Descriptive Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of this thesis provide theoretical and managerial recommendations for achieving superior board performance. The importance of the role of the Behavioural Integration inside the boardroom is underlined as a significant finding of this study. Moreover, the role of Trust in the board context raises some important questions about its priority since there may be other processes or dynamics which present more clear-cut results on board effectiveness. Furthermore, the deleterious effects of conflict have been underlined. It is also underlined that in this competitive era boards should go beyond fiduciary responsibilities to a more strategic role on a broader range of matters With the exception of a few studies, researchers still to move inside the "black box" of the upper echelons processes and understand how the executives in the board interact. Building a strong board of directors requires a focus beyond demographic characteristics to board interactions. The most effective boards have the strongest board dynamics and are characterized by openness, teamness and collaborative behaviour. The power of the board comes from the ability of the directors to effectively work together and hopefully the current study contributes substantially to the corporate governance field and the way that team processes affect team outcomes.

“Social integration” is a construct referred to in workgroup and organisational research, in particular in research focused on understanding workplace diversity. The present research examined how the social integration construct could be more clearly conceptualised and measured in the South African context. Guided by Hinkin’s (1998) scale development framework, the research seeks to contribute to the early stages of the development of a scale of social integration, suited for use in South African workplaces. Items were generated theoretically, leading to a final pool of 72 items. 620 usable responses were received from individuals employed in organisations in South Africa and this sample was randomly split into two samples of 310 participants each: a “calibration” and “validation” sample. On the calibration sample, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in order to examine emerging first- and higher-order latent variable structures. EFA led to the development of a first-order, seven-factor model. Exploratory extension analysis generated three possible higher-order latent variable structures. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), both the first- and higher-order models were fitted to the “validation” sample to test if the models generalised to a second sample drawn from the same population. Results indicated that the first-order model demonstrated an adequate fit, as well as two of the three higher-order models. The fit of these two higher-order models did not differ significantly. Post-hoc analyses determined that, while social integration can be considered a meaningful higherorder construct, the construct has theoretical rather than practical relevance for researchers. Responses to the proposed scale of social integration should be interpreted at the level of the identified first-order constructs rather than as a single scale representing the higher order, abstract social integration construct. The generalisability and contextual nature of the research findings, suggestions for future research, and the theoretical and practical limitations of the present research are discussed.

Les caractéristiques psychologiques qui prédisent les comportements et la performance en emploi, telles qu’évaluées par l’évaluation du potentiel (ÉP), ont fait l’objet d’un grand nombre d’études. Leurs résultats ont influencé l’importance accordée à certaines caractéristiques par les conseillers habiletés à mener ce type d’évaluation (Morris, Daisley, Wheeler, & Boyer, 2015). Toutefois, peu est encore connu sur les pratiques des conseillers au moment de donner la rétroaction à la suite de l’ÉP et sur les effets comportementaux générés par la rétroaction chez les participants de retour en emploi. Selon Plunier (2012), seulement 20 % d’entre eux modifient leur comportement et entreprennent des actions développementales dans le sens de la rétroaction reçue en ÉP, et ce, peu importe le contexte d’évaluation ou la recommandation qui en découle (Boudrias, Bernaud, & Plunier, 2014). Une question survient : dans quelles conditions la rétroaction en ÉP favorise-t-elle l’appropriation comportementale chez les participants? Cette thèse vise à documenter certaines conditions qui maximisent l’appropriation comportementale de la rétroaction, opérationnalisée par les changements de comportement et l’implication dans des activités de développement. La thèse ajoute un ensemble de conditions et variables au modèle d’appropriation de la rétroaction proposé par Boudrias et al. (2014). Ces variables, abordées au cours de deux articles empiriques, sont les techniques du conseiller axées sur le développement, le soutien social d’une personne significative (ex. superviseur, collègue, membre de la famille) perçu par les participants en regard de leur objectif de développement ainsi que le nombre et la difficulté des compétences à développer. Dans le premier article, en nous appuyant notamment sur la théorie de la fixation d’objectif (Locke & Latham, 1990), nous postulons que les techniques de rétroaction du conseiller axées sur le développement (Lessard, 2019) prédiront l’intention motivationnelle de changer du participant. Il est attendu que l’intention prédira à son tour l’appropriation comportementale (Boudrias et al., 2014), mais que cette relation sera modérée par le soutien social au développement. Ces hypothèses ont été vérifiées auprès de 240 participants en contexte réel d’ÉP grâce à la modélisation par équations structurelles. Les résultats révèlent que l’intention motivationnelle de changer médie la relation entre les techniques du conseiller et le soutien social, alors que le soutien social médie la relation entre l’intention motivationnelle et les activités développementales. Une explication possible est que la recherche de soutien social est une stratégie d’apprentissage utilisée par les participants qui veulent changer (Haemer, Borges-Andrade, & Cassiano, 2017). La théorie de la fixation d’objectif (Locke & Latham, 2015) permet d’envisager qu’il y aura un effet d’interaction entre la difficulté des compétences à améliorer et le nombre de compétences ciblées lors de la rétroaction. Dans le deuxième article, nous testons l’hypothèse selon laquelle cette interaction prédira l’intention motivationnelle de changer dans le sens de la rétroaction et l’appropriation comportementale de la rétroaction. Pour ce faire, nous avons exécuté des analyses de régression hiérarchique modérée sur un échantillon de 65 participants pour lesquels nous avons analysé les rapports d’ÉP précisant les compétences ciblées dans la rétroaction. Les résultats montrent que la relation entre la difficulté des compétences et l’intention de changer est positive lorsque l’émetteur de la rétroaction aborde trois compétences lacunaires ou moins et que la relation entre la difficulté des compétences et les activités développementales est positive lorsque l’émetteur de la rétroaction aborde une seule compétence lacunaire alors qu’elle est négative lorsque l’émetteur en aborde neuf. Les apports théoriques de chacun des articles ainsi que les pistes d’intervention pratiques en découlant sont discutés séparément et repris dans une conclusion globale. Les limites et propositions de recherches futures sont également abordées dans cette dernière section. / The psychological characteristics that predict behavior and job performance, as assessed by an individual psychological assessment (IPA), have been the subject of a large number of studies. These studies have influenced the importance given to certain characteristics by I/O psychologists qualified to conduct this type of assessment (Morris, Daisley, Wheeler, & Boyer, 2015). However, little is known about the psychologists’ practices when providing feedback following an IPA and the behavioural effects of feedback on the participants returning to work. According to Plunier (2012), only 20% of the latter modify their behaviour and undertake developmental actions in the direction of the feedback received, regardless of the assessment context and the recommendation that results (Boudrias, Bernaud, & Plunier, 2014). A question arises: under what conditions does IPA feedback promote behavioural integration among participants? This dissertation aims to document certain conditions that maximize the behavioural integration of feedback, operationalized by behavioural changes and engagement in developmental activities. A set of conditions and variables is added to the feedback integration model proposed by Boudrias et al. (2014). Theses variables, discussed in two empirical articles, are the psychologists’ techniques focused on the development, the social support for development from a significant individual (e.g. supervisor, colleague, family member) perceived by the participants as well as the number and difficulty of the competencies to be improved. In the first article, relying in particular on the theory of goal setting (Locke & Latham, 1990), we postulate that the psychologists’ techniques focused on the development (Lessard, 2019) will predict the participants’ motivational intention to change. It is expected that the intention will in turn predict behavioural integration (Boudrias et al., 2014), but that this relationship will be moderated by social support for development. Theses hypotheses were verified with 240 participants in a real IPA context using structural equation modeling. The results show that the motivational intention to change mediates the relationship between the psychologists’ techniques and social support, while social support mediates the relationship between motivational intention and developmental activities. One possible explanation is that seeking social support is a learning strategy used by participants who want to change (Haemer, Borges-Andrade, & Cassiano, 2017). The goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 2015) suggests that there will be an interaction between the difficulty of the competencies to be improved and the number of competencies targeted during the feedback. In the second article, we test the hypothesis that this interaction will predict the motivational intention to change in the direction of feedback and the behavioural integration of feedback. To do this, we performed moderated hierarchical regression analyses on a sample of 65 participants for which we analyzed IPA reports specifying the targeted competencies in the feedback. The results show that the relationship between developmental difficulty and intention is positive when the feedback provider addresses three deficient competencies or fewer. The relationship between developmental difficulty and developmental activities is positive when the feedback provider presents only one deficient competency while it is negative when the provider presents nine deficient competencies. The theoretical contribution of each of the articles as well as the practical avenues for intervention arising therefrom are discussed separately and taken up in an overall conclusion. Limits and proposals for future research are also discussed in this last section.