Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Theses Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 The Meaningfulness of Internships: A Sensemaking Approach Kaley Campbell Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.edu/open_access_theses Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Campbell, Kaley, "The Meaningfulness of Internships: A Sensemaking Approach" (2016). Open Access Theses.edu/open_access_theses/927 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact epubs@purdue.edu for additional information. G 3 U P VTY RRT S The ! /! est"t!#$ Rcce%t"$ce &'i( i( )* +,r)i-.
)', -i1a4 ,8ami1i15 +*mmi)),,: ¨©®¯ ¦° ±²³³´ µ¶·¸¹ ºª§» ±ª¼ ½®¯® ¾ª©¨§ 9o ;<= >=?; o@ Ay CDowl=HJ= KDH K? LDH=M?;ooH >y ;<= ?;LH=D; ND ;<= 9<=?N?OQN??=M;K;NoD WJM==A=D;X ZL>lN[K;NoD Q=lKyX KDH \=M;N@N[K;NoD QN?[lKNA=M ]^MKHLK;= _[<ool `oMA bfgX ;<N? ;<=?N?OHN??=M;K;NoD KH<=M=? ;o ;<= jMovN?NoD? o@ ZLMHL= uDNv=M?N;y? ZolN[y o@ kD;=JMN;y ND n=?=KM[< KDH ;<= L?= o@ [ojyMNJ<; AK;=MNKlp q22r*6,d 7.: ¦´® ¦ª©¿´ ÀÁÂÁÃÄÅÆ ~ THE MEANINGFULNESS OF INTERNSHIPS: A SENSEMAKING APPROACH A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University By Kaley S. Campbell In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts August 2016 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first thank my advisor, Patrice Buzzanell, for helping me through every stage of this project. You always provided insightful feedback that pushed my project forward and challenged me to think about my data in a different way. I have so enjoyed all of our conversations and have appreciated being able to talk through all of my questions and ideas with you.
Even from my first semester at Purdue when I was in your Organizational Communication course, you were a wonderful mentor to me and your constant support and positive encouragement have been instrumental in helping me through this program. I would also like to thank my committee members, Josh Boyd and Felicia Roberts, for their time spent as part of my committee. Both of your comments, questions, and suggestions were incredibly helpful in making my project stronger. Each of you provided a unique perspective that challenged me to think about the scope of my project in a different way and I really appreciated the time you took to serve on my committee.
Finally, I would like to thank Pam Deutsch who was always so willing to help me with different parts of this project and my wonderful graduate school friends who were my rock during this project. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT. 32 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION. 67 APPENDICIES Appendix A: Internship Report Assignment.
75 Appendix B: Internship Essay Assignment. 76 iv ABSTRACT Campbell, Kaley S., Purdue University, August 2016. The Meaningfulness of Internships: A Sensemaking Approach. Major Professor: Patrice M.
Internships are an important part of undergraduate education, with more than 61% of students completing an internship, yet there is not much academic literature surrounding this topic (NACE, 2015). Using Weick’s (1995) sensemaking theory, report data were analyzed thematically looking for how interns made sense of their experiences and what they found to be meaningful. This study found four distinct themes that interns used to navigate unique tensions and power dynamics within their organizational setting: “Just an intern,” “It’s up to me,” “For my future,” and “I was allowed.” Future research could explore framing internships more as a career choice rather than a precursor or stepping stone into a future career. INTRODUCTION Summer internships for undergraduate students are often talked about as a necessity for competitive résumés and as a stepping stone into a future career.
For example, some parents compare having their children selected for an internship to acceptance at Harvard University (Greenburg, 2015). Internships have also been auctioned at charity events, with a Vogue internship selling for $42,500 (Stout, 2010). The number of students completing internships evidences their prevalence and importance for students. In 2015, almost two-thirds or 61 percent of undergraduate students in the United States completed internships before graduating according the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, 2015).
Internships are found in nearly every field including medicine, law, performing arts, government, and communication. Universities offer academic credit for internships, legitimizing their importance as a learning experience. Yet, what criteria and experience constitute an internship? While there is rarely just one definition for any word, the type of experience and even the title of what constitutes an internship is especially vague and changes from field to field and between each organization. In the medical field, nursing students complete internships called “preceptorships” while they shadow licensed nurses for a set number of hours.
“An Internet search of ‘internship definition’ yields more than fourteen million responseswith 2 many from campus websites (O’Neill, 2010, para.Law students complete internships titled “clerkships” during summers between law school. In the broadest sense, internships are considered to be work and to consist of career developmental activities. Even if unpaid, like household labor and volunteer activities, internships are considered part of the broad conceptualization of “work,” with work typically associated with some form of employment in which one receives compensation in some form. As students get internships to help prepare themselves for their career, it should be noted that a career has “no limits” as to the direction or speed one moves or for how achievements are defined regarding employment experiences, yet internships are talked about as one way to start one’s career (Lucas, Liu, & Buzzanell, 2006).
Therefore, the way interns make sense of their experiences varies widely and can be diverse based upon their unique internship experiences. The nature, depth, and conditions of the “opportunity” can be somewhat vague, offering space for both organizations and interns to create different kinds of experiences and/or negotiate the terms. As a result, internships are socially created discursively and materially through intern-organization relations and the needs and interests of both parties. This social construction is partially created through the framing of internships in general as well as in particular contexts and this framing can direct attention to certain aspects and indicate appropriate action.
The experience of internships is vague and thus offers a site for sensemaking to be articulated as interns navigate their understanding. Weick (1995) explained that strategic ambiguity is important in sensemaking because it “allows people to maintain the perception that there is agreement, when in fact, there is not” (p. Given the ambiguity of internships, they are consistently redefined 3 within organizations to accommodate organizational needs. They also differ for all interns, creating unique needs for sensemaking because expectations likely differ from the internship experience.
These mismatched expectations also may prompt sensemaking because interns who interned at a previous organization might need to make sense of their new organizational environment, because there likely are many differences given the diversity of internship opportunities. In this chapter, I first provide an overview of internships, specifically, the historical construction of internships as well as academic literature and empirical research on internships. Second, I provide the rationale for this study including the theoretical and methodological approaches to be used. Finally, I conclude with a summary and overview of the thesis chapters.
Historical Construction of Internships Originally, internships began as an apprenticeship-like model for medical students to gain first-hand experience in the field under direct supervision (Perlin, 2011). Before World War II, internships only existed in the form of medical residencies for aspiring doctors. Around the 1930s, internship programs were developed for political campaigns and governmental organizations at the local, state, and national levels. Around 1975 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education no longer used the term “internship” and replaced it with “residency” to differentiate medical internships from those in other fields.
In the 1960s, universities began integrating internships into undergraduate curriculums as a way to provide students with real-world experience 4 outside of the classroom (Spradlin, 2009). But it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that the internship boom began and has grown rapidly ever since. Today, universities across the country offer internships in multiple departments on campus for university credit. The Association of American Colleges and Universities list internships among first year seminars and learning communities as “high impact experiences,” and the criteria that make an experience high-impact are: (1) “they are effortful,” (2) “they help students build substantive relationships,” (3) “they help students engage across differences,” (4) “they provide students with rich feedback,” (5) “they help students apply and test what they are learning in new situations,” (6) “they provide opportunities for students to reflect on the people they are becoming” (O’Neill, 2010, paras.
Internships provide students with hands-on learning opportunities outside of the classroom and feedback on their work. Also, with university credit, an internship can be listed on an academic transcript to increase authenticity when applying for future jobs. Academic Literature Related to Internships While internships are an important staple of undergraduate curriculums among all fields, academic literature on the subject is scarce. As of 2010, there were only 22 published studies on internships (Narayanan, Olk, & Fukami, 2010).
Of these studies, socialization theory was the common framework with five studies using this theory. Although common to many disciplines and studied in various ways, internships have not been analyzed from a communicative perspective. Narayanan et al. (2010) found two overall themes for categorizing internship literature: internship design and internship 5 outcomes.
Internship design was defined as investigating “what makes the experience valuable for the student, supervisor, or faculty member” including the presence of mentoring relationships and levels of satisfaction (p. 62; see also Tovey, 2001). Research on internship design shows that mentors are impactful even when time between the supervisor and intern is sparse (Anson & Forsberg, 1990). Internship outcomes have mainly revolved around the accumulation of knowledge and skills.
Internships can help students gain skills that are useful to their jobs and also help them with their writing (Freedman & Adam, 2001; Garavan & Murphy, 2001). Rationale and Theoretical and Methodological Approaches The rationale for this study stems from discussions about internships and personal experience as an intern regarding the diversity of internship experiences. Some experiences were great, while others were negative and lacked meaningful work. Universities list internships as a high-impact experience and organizations advertise internship programs each summer and semester.
Yet, according to research conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2014), unpaid interns were no more successful in getting a job offer after graduation than college students who did not intern at all. After graduation, only 37 percent of unpaid interns received a job offer in 2014, which does not show a significant advantage in comparison to the 35 percent of students who received a job offer and did not complete an internship at all. While getting a job is not the only determinant of whether or not an experience is meaningful, it is assumed to be one motivation. This research study also evidenced that those completing an unpaid internship received an average starting salary of $35,721 while those with no internship 6 experience were offered $37,087.
There could be several factors that go into why unpaid internships were not beneficial in helping students obtain a job. These include: the field of the internships, the current economy, and additional work-related experiences each student had. Although not investigated in this research study, it is quite possible that unpaid interns feel less attached or experience less identification with the organizations for which they intern because of perceived lack of investment and commitment to their career development. Regardless, this study raised the question of whether internships are always meaningful and whether students are learning enough for these experiences to be considered high-impact.
Therefore, this thesis seeks to understand themes of how interns make sense of their diverse internship experiences given the wide scope of intern experiences.