Determinants of Interns’ Satisfaction: Study with Special Reference to Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya

Abstract

Internship training has become an integral part of degree programs in many state and private universities. While much of the world is focused on internship training, little attention has been paid to interns’ satisfaction. However, interns’ satisfaction is an integral part to achieve the desired results from an internship program. Therefore, the current study attempts to examine, the determinants of interns’ satisfaction of Commerce and Management undergraduates in University of Kelaniya. In addition to that, this study intends to contribute to fill the literature gap by investigating into the associations between the determinants; university support, job characteristics, working environment, contextual factors and interns’ satisfaction. Hence, this was a quantitative, cross-sectional study in which primary data were collected through Google Forms by using probability sampling technique. Correlation and simple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Findings reveal a significant positive impact of university support, job characteristics, working environment and contextual factors on interns’ satisfaction and it is found that there is a significant relationship between university support, job characteristics, working environment, contextual factors and the interns’ satisfaction respectively. Accordingly, it is concluded that, if there is satisfaction in any of these four factors (university support, job characteristics, working environment, and contextual factors) the interns will be retained in that organization. The study results clearly underlined that, if the right and preferred methodologies are being adopted in internships, interns will be able to obtain a greater level of satisfaction from the internship. Furthermore, this study raises the need for stakeholders to look at the determinants on interns’ satisfaction in a more serious and holistic approach.