The impact of internship in public organizations on university students’ perceptions and career choice
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852312455307 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
78(4) 710–732
!The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020852312455307
ras.sagepub.com
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
The impact of internship in public
organizations on university
students’ perceptions and career
choice
Kilkon Ko
Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
Dalvin Jit Kaur Sidhu
National University of Singapore
Abstract
Although internship has substantial implications for public administration, little is known
about how it affects students. This article analyzes whether internships change students’
perceptions of public organizations, and whether they ultimately affect their choice
between public and private sector jobs. We surveyed 818 Singapore university students
and measured their perceptions of public organizations using a masculinity index. Then,
we analyzed whether those with internship experience had different perceptions from
those without it. Finally, we used logistic regression to test whether perceptions of
public organizations and public internship experiences explain the probability of stu-
dents’ job choices. These analyses were complemented by interviews with students.
The with-internship group shows significantly lower masculinity index scores than the
without-internship group. The less masculine their image of public organizations, the
stronger their preference for public sector jobs. Students with an unsatisfactory intern-
ship confirm or strengthen their masculine image of public organizations and avoid
public sector jobs.
Points for practitioners
Public organizations can utilize internship programs not only to draw talent into the
public service but also to improve their image. This does not happen automatically,
however. Universities and public organizations should closely monitor what students
actually do during an internship and why they are satisfied or dissatisfied with it. Our
research shows that a negative internship experience can have a more negative impact
on the image of public organizations and the decision to work in these organizations
than no internship at all. This finding suggests that the government should pay more
Corresponding author:
Kilkon Ko, Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Email: Kilkon@snu.ac.kr
attention to the needs of interns and institutionalize a procedure to evaluate students’
satisfaction with internship programs.
Keywords
career choice, internship, masculinity index, public sector organizations, university
students
Introduction
Internship has substantial educational and practical implications for public admin-
istration. Public administration educators use internship programs to help students
understand the world of public organizations better through practical work experi-
ence (Denhardt, 2001; Holzer and Lin, 2007). Master of public administration
(MPA) programs around the world include compulsory or optional internships.
As a result, thousands of university students worldwide participate in government
internship programs.
1
Optimistic views on the impact of public sector internships are common in the
literature. The advocates of such views believe that internship programs expose
their participants to the inner workings of public service. Such exposure can poten-
tially remove unduly negative stereotypes of public service that discourage the best
and brightest graduates from pursuing a career in the public sector (Holzer and
Rabin, 1987: 5). Another benefit of quality students participating in internships is
that they may otherwise not consider pursuing a public sector career due to insuf-
ficient knowledge about the way that the government works. Internship programs
can be even more useful for countries that adopt civil service exams as a primary
recruitment instrument. Since civil service exams partially measure the true cap-
acity of prospective civil servants, internship programs can be used as a comple-
mentary source of recruitment.
On the negative side, internship programs cost money and do not guarantee
positive outcomes. The costs of some internship programs may exceed their bene-
fits, and organizations may not want to finance internships if benefits accrue only in
the long run (Bassi and Ludwig, 2000). Studies also raise the possibility that a bad
internship experience can make students shun the industry they interned in. This is
plausible considering that internship programs tend to be unstructured and poorly
organized (Lam and Ching, 2007: 337). If internship experiences are not satisfac-
tory, they are unlikely to improve the image of public organizations. Rather, they
would confirm students’ preconceived negative images of public service (Henry,
1979). Thus, the positive impacts of an internship are conditional on the type of
work, team spirit and involvement in real work, autonomy, and the quality of
mentorship by supervisors, and not solely on the internship itself (Lam and
Ching, 2007; McCaffery, 1979).
The evaluation of these optimistic and contingent views is ultimately a subject
for empirical study. However, only a few such studies are available. A review of
Ko and Sidhu 711
To continue reading
Request your trial