Factors for Enabling Knowledge Sharing Among Participants in a Cooperative Education Program

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is a human event that blends the skills of working as a team, having a dialogue, analyzing information, and maintaining a collaborative effort. To make the behaviors for knowledge sharing occurring in a cooperative education program there has to be a sense of aligning the values for all participants involved in the process. This study examines the factors that enable knowledge sharing between the cooperative education program administrators, students taking part in the program, and company mentors providing advice to the students. A case method was applied at an educational institution to pinpoint the aspects that showcased the conditions that promoted knowledge sharing among the participants. The work addresses the issues of knowledge, relationships and processes, organizational contexts, and external factors for imparting a better understanding of how the cooperative program administrators, company mentors, and students can function collectively to assist the latter in completing the program.