Management 465 Management Internship - Spring 1996
Western Illinois University: RIRUC
Terence C. Krell, M.B.A., Ph.D. Office Phone: 792-5330 x244 Home Phone: 793-1998
Course Description
This course grants academic credit for work experience in an organization involving on-the-job training in management-related areas*. The intention is to expose students to aspects of management that they would not otherwise encounter in the course of their college experience, as preparation for employment upon graduation as a management trainee. It is therefore necessary for the student to be in some way involved in, or exposed to, the management-related tasks/activities of the business or organization at which the student is employed as an intern. To insure that internships meet the necessary educational requirements, the instructor must approve each internship individually, hence student consultation with the instructor is required before a student may enroll. Employer consultation with the instructor is available, but not required.
Students must acquire and present to the instructor, as soon as possible and prior to the end of the second week of the semester, a letter/memorandum of intent from their internship supervisor (employer), on letterhead, which is to include:
I. A statement that the supervisor has read this course description and understands the nature of the internship and agrees to the requirements presented here.
II. A commitment from the supervisor:
Students will be required to keep a journal documenting both the managerial tasks they have observed, completed, or in which they have participated, and their feelings, thoughts, and learnings from these experiences. Students will further be required to summarize, in a term paper, the experiences detailed in their journals and compare and contrast their experience with the textbook theories of management. The journal will be reviewed by the instructor at least once during the semester for each credit hour (3 reviews if 3 credits) and the completed journal will be submitted as an appendix to the term paper during finals week. It is not customary for the supervisor of the intern to have access to either the journal or the term paper.
Students may be enrolled in from one to three credits of Management 465. A minimum of 50 hours of internship is necessary for one credit, 100 hours for 2 credits and 150 hours for 3 credits. Over a 15 week semester, this equates to three to four hours per week per credit, which is approximately the outside class time for homework study required per credit for a normal academic class. Spacing and timing of these hours is flexible: internships may be full time employment for several weeks or part time for a full semester, or any variation. The hours listed are guidelines based upon traditional, full-time students: adjustments for fully employed students may be made on a case by case basis by the instructor as described below.
If students are already employed and wish to use that employment for internship credit, someone at their current employer must commit to adding a management component to that employment sufficient to accommodate the necessary hours for course credit. This management component need not involve reassignment, but at a minimum must include additional exposure to aspects of management. Such a component might include, for example, attendance at planning meetings not normally attended, a temporary assignment, an extra project completed, or regular extra meetings with someone higher up in the organization. A broad estimate of the nature of this component should be included in the letter/ memorandum of intent described above.
Prospective supervisors having questions are encouraged to call the instructor at the numbers above.
*Compensation for internship employment is a private matter between the employer and the intern, but it is expected that the employer will comply with all local laws, including those concerning minimum wage.
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