UNDERSTANDING STUDENT WORK EXPERIENCE: A CONTENT-ANALYTIC APPROACH Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 17, 1990 198 UNDERSTANDING STUDENT WORK EXPERIENCE: A CONTENT-ANALYTIC APPROACH Ellen J. Kennedy and Leigh Lawton College of St. Thomas ABSTRACT There has been little research to date dealing with the process student’s go through in attempting to make sense of their Initial work experience. In an exploratory study, content analysis was used to track student’s reactions to their socialization to the workforce over a three-month period. While pragmatic concerns dominated student attention throughout the experience, emotional and analytical dimensions emerged toward the end of the experience. It appears that content analysis offers a useful methodology for examining changes in student reactions over the course of an experiential situation. INTRODUCTION This paper is an exploratory study, which uses a small sample of students to demonstrate how content analysis can be used as a tool to evaluate and monitor the progress of students in an internship experience. The methodology can easily be applied to experiential situations other than internships. As students go about learning the ropes in an experiential setting, variations are often found in their context or definition of the situation (Stryker 1972). E.g., one student may define a situation in terms of the interpersonal relationships involved, while another student may emphasize the learning opportunities. Furthermore, even students who share a common context (definition) for the situation may disagree on the concepts or components of the situation--e.g. two students may define an internship experience In terms of goal achievement, yet one student may focus on achieving the goal by learning requisite skills, while the second student may focus on achieving the goal through better time management. Finally, students may change their contexts (definitions) of their experiential learning situation over time. This paper uses content analysis to examine these three issues: differing contexts among students experiencing similar situations: differing concepts that define situations for students with similar contexts: and changes in contexts over time. MINNESOTA CONTEXTUAL CONTENT ANALYSIS A computerized content analysis technique developed by McTavish’s models the experiential process In several different ways (Catrell and Kennedy 1986): 1) McTavish’s Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis (MCCA) program defines a situation in terms of four alternative contexts. The four contexts are: a) traditional - the salient context features are defined around standards, rules, codes of behavior, conformity, norms, values, and ethics. b) pragmatic -the primary context features involve the rational achievement of goals, power, control, and a means-end orientation. c) emotional - the affective perspective dominates the context and emphasizes individual involvement, personal concern, comfort, primary relationships, and positive and negative expressions of emotion. d) analytic - salient features of the context Imply objective evaluation or analysis, explanation, understanding, rationalization, inquiry, and the organization of information or knowledge. 2) MCCA codes the words for each text-case into 117 concepts. Using the profile of scores for the 117 conceptual categories, differences in the pattern of ideas across texts can be quantified and graphed as a proximity matrix. 3) The words that the program codes into the Idea categories constitute different operationalizations of the same variable. The program uses a dictionary that defines words for each concept category, and this dictionary is capable of disambiguating the meaning of a word in the text that has more than one meaning or usage. 4) The MCCA program can compare up to fifty texts at a time, and can analyze the same case, or several cases, over time. An error term can be approximated for each case’s model of a social context when a criterion text is available for Inclusion in the analysis. The MCCA approach to content analysis allows variation in behavior to be examined at two very different levels: the context of the overall situation, and the concepts used for defining the context. We can use this technique to look at two behavioral components: individuals socialization relative to defining a social situation, and how that individual decomposes and defines that situation. METHODOLOGY For this exploratory study, subjects were five upper division undergraduate college students participating in an undergraduate business administration internship program. Data were collected from the students at the beginning of weeks 4. 8, and 12 of their 16-week internships. The data consisted of several hundred words of reflection on their internship site experience (‘What Is the biggest problem you see at your internship site?”), as well as reflections on the internship program (‘What changes would you recommend in the internship program and in your specific internship site and job?), and on the outcomes (‘What was the most important outcome of your internship experience?’). As a comparative measure, or criterion text, selections were included from the Faculty Internship Advisor Manual supplied to the faculty member supervising the student, and from the Student Internship Manual which was received by all students in the program. The final piece of data consisted of an Interview with the college’s Internship Director, who was also the author of the two manuals. The data were analyzed using MCCA and were examined longitudinally. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The major contextual dimension of pragmatism dominated the student’s view of their work experiences. [There were only two exceptions-one student (emotional) and the director’s interview (analytical).] The pragmatic context is defined by McTavish and Pirro (1984, p. 20) as follows: Individuals with this perspective tend to be motivated by a sense of personal interest in achievement, success, getting ahead, or goal attainment. New people in these contexts are trained and often learn by doing... Overall, this research indicates that the internship experience focuses on role clarity (Buchanen 1974)--what the students are expected to do, when, and their feelings about it. Most of the students experienced changes over the course of the internship experience. The fact that change occurred supports much of the rationale for the experience. An experiential opportunity Is an exploratory process the results of which are, optimally, changed perceptions about oneself and ones environment. However, the changes these students showed were fairly small. This may reflect the limited duration of the internship experience (three months, a rather short time for significant change to occur) as well as the stability of duties over the three-month period. Discussion. This study illustrates that content analysis can be a useful methodology for examining student reactions to an experiential situation and for tracking changes in their reactions over time. References furnished on request. Table of Contents Volume 17, 1990 The Impact of Decision Support Systems on the Effectiveness of Small Group Decisions - Revisited The Relationship Between Financial Performance and Other Measures of Learning on a Simulation Exercise Use and Effectiveness of an Analogy-Based Expert System Suggestions for Computerized Business Authors Dealing with Power: An Experiential Exercise Using Movie and Personal Diary Analysis Techniques A Model for Developing Student Skills and Assessing Outcomes Through Outdoor Training Computer-Aided Exercises Versus Workbook Exercises as Learning Facilitator in the Principles of Marketing Course An Exposition of Guilford's Si Model as a Means of Diagnosing and Generating Pedagogical Strategies in Collegiate Business Education Formal Planning and Simulation Team Performance: A Cross Sectional Approach Cases: Real Organizations in Real Time in the Classroom An Empirical Investigation of the Internal Validity of Marketing Simulation Game An Empirical Evaluation of the Pedagogical Value of Playing a Simulation Game in a Principles of Marketing Course Factors Affecting Effective Teaching of Strategic Planning: Some Preliminary Evidence An Experiential Exercise for Learning About the Relationship Between Organizational Form & the Project Management Process Accounting Communication Skills can be Taught in the Auditing Course Modeling Cost Functions in Computerized Business Simulation: An Application of Duality Theory and Sheppard's Lemma A Life Cycle Analysis of Decision Making for a Strategic Management Team What's the Problem? A Dynamic Model for Teaching Problem Solving Skills Experientially International Currency Fluctuations: Money$im, A Simulation Superstores: A Specialized Retailing Simulation Within a Specialized Marketing Curriculum Factors Affecting Student Perceptions of Learning in a Business Policy Game VC + EL = VL The Name Game: An Experiential Exercise in Intergroup Relations The Effects of Experiential Accounting Work Experience on Student Performance in Intermediate Accounting Courses The Results of Using the Experiential Activity Group Performance Evaluation in a Business Policy Setting Using a Legal Database to Describe the Legal Environment of Marketing (and Business) Matching Environmental Uncertainty and Organizational Configuration An Instructional Computer Simulation of Tampering in QC Executive Evaluation of Student Learning in the Looking Glass Simulation Group Personality Composition and Total Enterprise Simulation Performance An Expert System for Selecting Analytical Techniques for Analyzing Marketing Research Data Effects of Cognitive Styles on Responses in an In-Basket Simulation A Psychometric Analysis of Kolb's Revised Learning Style-Inventory Selecting and Developing Experiential Exercises Using Movies Application of a Real-World Strategic Management Model in the Classroom Demand Equations which Include Product Attributes Consumption as the Objective in Computer-Scored Total Enterprise Simulations The Effects of Decision Format and Evaluation on Simulation Performance, Decision Time, and Team Cohesion The Effects of Computer Related Assignments on Student Performance in Business Administration The Money Game: A Dynamic Simulation Including Random Shocks for Money and Banking Courses Methods for Evaluating Performance on Business Simulations: A Survey The Effects of Synergogy on the Policy Course: Significant Improvements in Student Learning and Teacher Evaluation Conditions and Outcomes of Trust in a Two-Person Bargaining Exercise Bankgame Enhancing Computer Business Simulation with the Use of VGA Graphics An Experiential Approach to Entrepreneurship An Advanced Simulation Method (ASM) for Multiple Objective Problems The Influence of Experiential learning Techniques on Student Recognition of Non-Primary Learning Styles Negotiating Mergers and Acquisitions: A Cocktail Napkin Approach Identification of Unintended Effects in Experiential Laboratory Exercises An Experimental Comparison of Paper and Pencil and Computer Aided Decision Support Tools Porting a Simulation from the IBM World to the Macintosh World A Transaction Cost Analysis of Experiential Learning The Development of Experiential Exercises for Courses in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management The Assessment Center as and Experiential Classroom Exercise Pricing Strategy Algorithms for Playing Business Simulations Organizational Structures for International Operations: An Experiential Activity Simulation Emphasis in the Business School Capstone Course An Integrated Approach to Computerizing the Business Curriculum Cross-Cultural Business Negotiations Exercise Organizational Socialization and Gender Differences in Students at Work Understanding Student Work Experience: A Content-Analytic Approach Introducing Executive MBA Programs with Management Games An Analysis of Improvement in Business Decision Outcome with Sequential Use of Two Simulation Games Teaching Business Policy Utilizing Mass Lecture and Individual Case Labs Potholes Along the Road to Evaluating Learning Outcomes: The Case of Outdoor Management Training Experiential Learning for Interior Design Students: Using CADD, Lotus 1-2-3, and Wordperfect Cognitive Learning Using a Computer-Based, Qualitative Interactive Business Simulation Sex Discrimination: Does the Woman get the Job or Does the Best Man Win? A Search for Visual Aids to Support Experiential Learning Through the 1990's An Experimental Analysis fo the Effectiveness of Student Role-Playing in Sales Training How to Have Students Learn from their Term Projects Self-Evaluation Exercise (SEE): An Assessment of Class Contribution A Study of the Influence of Team Formation on Attitudes and Performance in Management Games A Hardware Based CIM Simulation Laboratory Model Test Substance Abuse in Organizations Micro Computer Training Models Teaching Forecasting, Cash Budgeting and Inventory Model Building Using SBTools A Comparison of the Effects of Experiential Learning Activities and Traditional Lecture Classes An Adjunct Writing Instruction Assistant, The Computer; With an Illustration Classroom Software for ABC Analysis Utilizing Information Processing Technology to Enhance the Business Policy Simulation Experience Progressive Cases Realistic Job Previews Vs. Traditional Job Previews: Experiencing the Differences and Understanding the Consequences Investment Analysis Using the Pragmatic Multiplier Approach A Computer Simulation Interface for Competitive and Firm Analysis Self-Assessment of Ethical Decision Making Predispositions Preparing Managers for Overseas Assignments An Inquiry into Japanese Marketing: Workshop on Teaching Japanese Marketing The Performance Appraisal Feedback Interview: A Role Play for Human Resources Management Teaching Counselor Selling techniques Using Experiential Techniques to Teach International Topics International Management Simulation Gaming: Current Status and Future Developments A Realism Comparison of Simulation Technologies/Methodologies A Time-Efficient Game to Illustrate Concepts Taught in Management Courses and Management Development Programs Teaching the Management of Technology The Concept of Face and the Applicability of Experiential Exercises in an Oriental Culture's