Developing the conditions for co-op students’ organizational commitment through co-operative education

Abstract : Based in a French context, this research investigates the link between the French cooperative education (co-op) system and students' organizational commitment. Following a quasi-experimental design with a control group, in a longitudinal approach, the study focuses on under-baccalaureate, undergraduate and graduate students. Results show that in the French context, coop is an attitudinal process able to develop students' affective organizational commitment under two conditions. The first is to build coop as a way to socialize the coop students with the organization. The second is to support coop students during their studies and also after graduation. From a coop research perspective, this study presents another model of coop and proposes to build a link between coop and organizational behavior and to think of coop as an incubator for developing high performers within organizations.