Internships often serve both as corporate talent acquisition strategy; and as opportunity for students to gain first-hand workplace experience, say Ali, Gardner and Edmondson (2022). Employers often use internship programmes to identify talent for full-time employment. It has been found that the support of supervisors may influence the decision of interns to pursue a job offer. Developmental relationships may impact early socialization and adaptation of interns. Internships serve as transition pathway from tertiary study, and as entryway to full-time employment.
“A mentor is uniquely distinct from a supervisor” indicate Ali, Gardner and Edmondson (2022: 338), who define a mentor as “a senior, experienced organizational member who helps more junior employees develop technical, interpersonal, and political skills”. Mentors fulfil “two functions to mentors in working with mentees, a career-related (providing sponsorship, coaching, challenging assignments, exposure, visibility and protection) and psychosocial (friendship, role modeling and counseling)”. Whereas a supervisor is generally assigned to the intern, mentoring is usually a more natural relationship, that develops spontaneously. Assigned supervisors, because sharing a workspace with the intern, is better positioned to serve as role model; there is a greater opportunity for interaction; and for performance-related guidance and development. “However, depending on the willingness of the supervisor to provide support, an intern may or may not receive the attention needed to develop”, and “may turn to other more senior organizational members who are more open to supporting them as mentors to fill this void” (Ali, Gardner and Edmondson, 2022: 338). In such a context the mentor buffers the detrimental effect of inadequate support by the supervisor.
Socialisation in the workplace is described by Ali, Gardner and Edmondson (2022: 336) as “the process by which an individual acquires knowledge, behaviors, and relationships necessary to participate and succeed in their initial assignments within the organization”. Both supervisors and peers help newcomers acquire skills and information. In Figure 1, Ali, Gardner and Edmondson (2022: 336) depict the key factors that may contribute to the socialisations of interns. They submit that the primary mechanisms underlying acceptance of a job offer are the “learning during the internship experience and the satisfaction gained from the internship”.
Ali, A.A., Gardner,P. & Edmondson, B. (2022). Developmental relationships matter: Examining the joint role of supervisor support and mentor status on intern outcomes. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 23(3), 335-346. Electronically accessible from https://www.ijwil.org/files/IJWIL_23_3_335_346.pdf
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