Internships, or temporary work arrangements, are used extensively by U.S. companies. Internships may be used as a means of recruitment, and to provide companies an opportunity to develop qualified entry-level candidates at relatively low cost. As interns require little additional training when hired into full-time positions, internships may help companies substantially reduce training costs without affecting performance on the full-time positions. Academic support on how to select qualified interns will help practitioners do a better job for companies. Yet, surprisingly, little research on internships has been published, especially with regard to selection for internship positions.
This dissertation has several objectives. The initial objective is to develop a conceptual framework for internship selection that would incorporate and examine two perspectives on internship selection. The first perspective examines the relationship between selection for internship and entry-level full-time positions. The two positions are similar in that each requires less specific job-related knowledge or experience than higher level positions do; therefore, internship selection might be designed in a manner similar to a selection process for full-time, entry-level positions. However, they are different in that, internship positions are not full-time positions. Therefore, differences between internship positions and full-time positions must also be incorporated into the proposed framework for internship selection. The second perspective examines the relationship between internship selection and work sample test. Internships might also be regarded as a selection method similar to an elaborated work sample test where companies could observe samples of job-related behaviors of job applicants in the process of internship.
The next objective is to perform an empirical analysis of the proposed conceptual framework using survey data collected from 139 organizations in the United States concerning internship selection processes and methods. The data that collected from this survey comprise descriptions of the selection process for internship positions, such as duration of internship positions, tasks and skill requirements for different types of internship positions (e.g., management, information-technology, and human-resource management), and methods used in internship selection (e.g., cognitive ability tests, personality measures, background checking methods). The analysis examined the differences between the tasks and required knowledge, skills, and abilities of internship positions and the corresponding next step(s) for full-time entry-level positions. Hypotheses regarding the differences between choices of selection methods for internship selection and full-time entry-level employment were also tested.
The third objective is to test how factors such as the attributes of internship positions, practitioners’ perceptions of selection methods, and organizational elements that might affect choice of selection methods in internship selection. Human Resource practitioners’ perceptions of validity, adverse impact, applicant reactions, cost, ease to administer and fakeability of selection methods were then explored to see how they might affect the utilization of selection methods for internship selection.
Results show that student interns were not expected to take much and greater responsibilities than they were capable of at this pre-stage of their own professions, and they would be assigned to elementary tasks like basic administrative or clerical work that were of less responsibility. Neither abilities to plan and prioritize multiple tasks, to handle stress and conflicts, to demonstrate leadership and presentation skills, and to resolve conflicts, nor specific job-related knowledge or past working experience were much required in performing such internship positions versus performing full-time entry-level positions. Interpersonal Skills, Oral Communication Skills, and Team Work Skills were rated the same Top 3 KSAOs requirements for both internship and full-time entry-level employment.
The host organizations tended to use similar numbers of selection methods for internship selection as for full-time entry-level position selection. Resume, Application Form, Structured In-Person Interview, Background Check, GPA, and Recommendation were rated the most frequently used both in selection for internship and full-time entry-level positions, and Job Knowledge Test, Assessment Center, and Biodata the least used. This doesn’t necessarily imply that these six were used more in internship selection than in full-time entry-level employment selection. Differences did exist because of the special nature of internship positions: GPA was used more frequently, while Application Forms, Structured In-Person Interview, and Recommendations were used less in internship selection than in full-time entry-level employment selection. Selection methods not used frequently in either full-time position selection or internship selections, like Un-Structured Phone Interviews, were still used more in internship selection than in full-time position selection. On the other hand, selection methods not used frequently in internship selections, like Job Knowledge Tests, Work Sample Tests, and Assessment Centers were used less in internship selection versus in full-time position selection.
This study also found that perceived applicant reaction, practicality, and faking, other than perceived validity, potential of adverse impact, and cost, played an important role in the practitioners’ choice of selection methods in actual internship selection process. Implications for future research and practice were also discussed.