Developing the conditions for co-op students' organizational commitment through cooperative education

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, co-op is an attitudinal process able to develop students' affective organizational commitment under two conditions. The first is to build co-op as a way to socialize the co-op students with the organization. The second is to support co-op students during their studies and also after graduation. From a co-op research perspective, this study presents another model of co-op and proposes to build a link between co-op and organizational behavior and to think of co-op as an incubator for developing high performers within organizations.