The Role of Emotional Expression and Mentoring in Internship Learning

Abstract

We examine the proactive role of interns in fostering positive internship experiences and how such experiences may bring about beneficial outcomes for both interns and sponsoring organizations. The model suggests that interns' emotional expressions (i.e., emotional masking and emotional sharing) and social activities influence the degree to which they learn and receive mentoring from their supervisors during the internship, which further influence interns' job satisfaction, affective commitment to the internship sponsor, and career attitude. The results, based on a sample of 167 college student interns working in the retail industry, indicate that emotional sharing is positively related to both learning and mentoring, while emotional masking is negatively related to learning. In addition, intern social activity is positively related to mentoring. We also found that the levels of learning and mentoring received are significantly related to intern job satisfaction, affective commitment to the internship sponsor, and a positive attitude toward the industry they interned with as a potential future career. Practical implications for the design and implementation of internship programs are discussed.

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