Master’s and Undergraduate Industrial/Organizational Internships

Abstract

Internships play a vital role in the education of master's and undergraduate-level industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology students, providing applied learning experiences in organizational settings under qualified supervision. This article presents results collected from surveys of organizational hosts and interns. It addresses locating sites for internships, ensuring an appropriate experience, and the responsibilities of organizational hosts. The authors describe the responsibilities of faculty and students, student competencies, and evaluation of student performance in providing a meaningful internship experience. They provide suggestions for yielding productive and useful internship experiences for master's I/O students with particular attention on the development of an appropriate internship site and framing requirements with the organizational host. They recommend strategies and techniques for monitoring and evaluating the I/O intern.

Internships: An Established Mechanism for Increasing Employability

“…Assessments of the internship experience also may identify the skills employers find most valuable, that is, the skills that increase employability for recent graduates. Furthermore, our data (Shoenfelt, Kottke, & Stone, 2012), as well as the data from other evaluations of internships (e.g., Cannon & Arnold, 1998;D'Abate, 2010;Taylor, 1988), indicate that the internship experience itself is an effective mechanism for developing rewarding skills (e.g., interpersonal skills, organizational savvy, professionalism). Thus, successfully completing an internship in and of itself increases the rewarding skill set Hogan et al indicated is most central to employability.…”

“…For example, accounting interns perceived internships as helpful for developing interpersonal skills (Beck & Halim, 2008), and undergraduate marketing majors found internships helpful in developing the ability to work with individuals from varied backgrounds (Cook, Parker, & Pettijohn, 2004). We (Shoenfelt et al, 2012) found that organizational savvy, interpersonal sensitivity, and professionalism, among other skills, were judged by both organizational hosts and interns to have increased significantly during the course of the internship for I-O master'slevel students. Other skills reported to have been developed in the internship that are related to rewarding might include integrity and time management (i.e., those who are unable to complete obligations on time are not rewarding to deal with).…”

“…Applied psychologists have long identified the latter two characteristics, ability and willingness, as prerequisites to successful job performance (e.g., Latham & Pinder, 2005;Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Internships are likely to help refine the interns' competencies (Shoenfelt et al, 2012) and willingness, as internships can help with career development and the development of organizational commitment (D'Abate, 2010; Knouse & Fontenot, 2008). In addition, job applicants with internship experience are generally rated more favorably and are more likely to be offered a permanent position (Knouse, Tanner, & Harris, 1999;Taylor, 1988;Zhao & Liden, 2011).…”

“…The research we cite to support the benefits of internships for employability is typical in that it relies on intern self-report and/or subjective ratings by intern hosts (e.g., Shoenfelt et al 2012;Taylor, 1988;Zhao & Liden, 2011). With the notable exception of the study by Lievens and Sackett (2012), little research has systematically assessed the factors leading to internship success or failure.…”

“…However, in total, this body of research suggests the same factors identified by Hogan et al as components of employability (RAW) are the components that differentiate successful from unsuccessful interns. In our own professional experience, we have witnessed relatively few internship failures, likely because at both the undergraduate and graduate level, students who lack the requisite skills (able) for an internship are selected out of the potential internship placement (Shoenfelt et al, 2012). Those who are placed in internships and subsequently fail have done so largely because of poor interpersonal skills (rewarding; e.g., comments inappropriate in the work setting, poor communication, social insensitivity) or a lack of initiative or motivation (willing; e.g., missing deadlines, requiring prompting to complete assignments, quitting internship).…”