L’émergence de la compétence collective en contextes extrêmes : le cas des équipes de secours en montagne

Sammanfattning: Risky, emergency or disruptive contexts are all qualifiers used for so-called "extreme" contexts that are usually characterized by uncertainty, time pressure and the presence of risks and / or dangers. Many authors and practitioners believe that they have now become the new normal for many organizations. The first studies that inspired this research consider that accidents are inevitable while others, such as those involving high reliability organizations (military aircraft carriers, professional firefighters) show that some organizations sustain their operation without major accidents, despite working in these contexts. They heavily rely on teamwork: the so-called "extreme action" teams. They are made up of a small number of people with heterogeneous expertise and being immersed in risky environments to achieve the objectives assigned to them. One of the major challenges for such teams is to be able to achieve their goals while preserving their integrity, which raises the question of their ability to work together. To answer it, we drew on the field of human resources, focusing on collective competence. In fact, this theme has undergone constant development, mainly since the mid-2000s. French and English research in this area are quite complementary without necessarily engaging in dialogue with each other. The first are rather focused on the components and conditions for the emergence of collective competence, while the second identifies the performance levers of teamwork. These two fields of research highlight the role played by coordination, implicit and explicit, between actors, communication practices as well as certain traditional levers of human resources management (training, recruitment, remuneration and evaluation) in the construction of this ability to act collectively. They allow the combination of individual expertise necessary for the achievement of the mission to be carried out. They also support progress toward the goal by enabling necessary adaptations related to changes in the mission or in the natural environment. Drawing on these literatures and relying on a single case, our thesis examines the collective competence necessary for the success and reliability of extreme action teams. This research was carried out through the study of an elite mountain rescue unit, the Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM) in Chamonix. These teams are extreme action teams whose mission is to rescue hikers and mountaineers in the hostile mountain environment. The interviews and observations that we conducted with the PGHM as well as with the Forces Aériennes de Gendarmerie allowed us to understand how the collective competence of these action teams is built and maintained, ensuring both the safety of the members of the the team and the success of mountain rescue operations.