I think you (and others that are working in groups) make the assumption that everyone has the same concept of "knowledge". Often this is the explicit, individual knowledge that most in the West identify as being important. However, what you are now addressing is the "group knowledge" that is held by individuals. But what about the "knowledge" that is held by the group? If you take an individual with their unique knowledge set, will the group still be able to function? If so, how, if each individual contributes to the organizational knowledge? Doesn't some knowledge belong to the group irrespective of the individuals that make up the group?

In addition, what I am finding in my research is that collaboration vs. cooperative are affected by resource constraints, temporal constraints, leadership, and environment (including culture, epistemologies, work practices/patterns of activity, and organizational power structures).