Perceptions of Internship Supervisor for Sport Managment Students

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of on-site internship supervisor in relationship to internship in sport management.

Methods

The sample of this study is on-site internship supervisors of 122 professional team sport organizations of four major leagues sports including the Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey Leagues (NHL), and the National Football League (NFL). The questionnaire in this study was designed to investigate the skills internship supervisors' thought our students should possess to best be prepared for the

internship experience. The questionnaire consists of questions about year of internship supervising experiences; specialty areas they offered to interns; minimum number of internship hours for interns' best experiences; preferred academic backgrounds of interns; important preparations for internship; the responsibilities of faculty internship advisors; stipend or salary; important skills which interns should possess; number of interns their organizations accept; their thoughts on requiring internship in Sport Management; chances for interns to be hired afterwards; internship evaluation; and demographic information.

The questionnaires were mailed to all on-site internship supervisors of the four major North American professional sport organizations. Of the total target number (n = 122), thirty-six responded to the survey questionnaire, so the response rate is 29.5%. A set of descriptive tests along with chi-square tests were conducted to compare the proportions.

Analysis/Results

Although on-site internship supervisor preferred certain courses over others to prepare students, no specific courses were required of students to fulfill their obligations as interns. Grade point average (GPA) was also not found to be a factor for on-site internship supervisor. While it is thought that a cooperative relationship between the student, the on-site internship supervisor and the academic faculty supervisor is vital, on-site internship supervisor are not as cooperative as the literature suggests. It was further found that interns are not evaluated to any great extent and therefore a universal manual should be developed for measurement. Lastly, it was found that internship does not necessarily mean later employment in the intern's specific organization.

Conclusions

The findings of this study pointed to the fact that an on-site internship supervisor and academic faculty supervisor had different expectations and perceptions in terms of fulfilling the requirements for a degree.