Miranda Dewtiler
Human Developmental Family Studies/Penn State, Altoona
Internship Experience Spring 2021
Blair Regional YMCA
The Blair Regional YMCA, is a non-profit organization that aims at promoting healthy living as well as social responsibility. The Y offers many different activiites including, but not limited to aquatics, fitness and childcare.
At my internship site I am focusing in on Human Resources. A few of my daily duties while at the Y are to help file and manage new and current employees. I help keep the organization organized as well as make sure clearances of employees are up to date. To list a few of my larger duties would be creating a powerpoint presentation on Child Abuse Prevention and Policies that are implemented at the Y. Along with creating the presentation I was also tasked with presenting it to fellow employees thus giving the training. Another vital project that I was given to work upon within my time at my internship was to update and create a new employee handbook.
Learning Objectives
I had used five theories to develop my learning objectives for my internship. Those five theories are Life Span Theory (Baltes, 1987), Theory of X and Y (McGregor, 1960), Motivation Theory/Herzberg Two Factor Theory (Herzberg, 1966), Ecological Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1994), and Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1987). There were two learning objectives that were more meaniful when examining my internship experience.
Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1987)
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is the idea that an individual must meet their lower level needs in order to achieve their high level needs.
A key concept from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is the idea that less complex needs and more complex needs interact with one another, and if an individual isn't meeting their lower level needs (e.g food and shelter) they won't be able to achieve their high level needs (e.g self-actualization).
Based off the idea of an individual and their needs I wanted to understand how a person not meeting their needs affect their work performance as well as if an individual is meeting their needs, what their work performance would look like. I was able to achieve this learning objective by wtinessing employees who were meeting their needs produce more productivity and increased work performance compared to those who were not meeting their needs and were producing poor results and struggling to stay happy within their job.
Theory of X and Y (McGregor, 1960)
McGregor's theory of X and Y is the idea that there are different types of management styles within a workplace.
A few key concepts of this theory is that theory X suggests that the average person does not enjoy working. This type of management style does not take the employee's input with decisions being made and employees will often be coerced to perform their work duties. Whereas Theory Y suggests that the average person enjoys work and gains satifaction from it. This type of management style takes their employees into consideration when making decisions as well as incorporating the employee's self-goals with the organization's own goals.
Based off the idea that every organization has a different management style I wanted to better understand which management style had the best results in employee satifaction and quality of productivity. I was able to achieve this learning objective by witnessing my internship site solely focus on meeting both the employee's goals and the organization's own goals. There have been various conversations that I've been apart of and heard between directors within my site and employees that guarantee the employee is being listened to and validated within the organization.
Core Issue I: The Effectiveness of Communication
Within my time at my internship site I was faced with few issues. Of those issues the effectiveness of communication seemed to reoccur often. Some of the employees that I interacted with had very different perspectives on communication and thus the effectiveness of their communication differed. It's important to recognize and understand that communication can mean many different things to other people.
Investigative Strategies: Experiences Impacting the Effectiveness of Communication
Throughout my internship experience I was able to see communication differed between employees. For example there were instances when people within my internship would schedule a meeting and then cancel without informing others. On the other hand, there were other individuals that would schedule a meeting and not be a minute late. Having experienced both of these scenerios I was quite familiar with certain patterns that employees would tend to do. Throughout this I was more persistant with certain employees when needing something done.
Outcomes: Communication Differs With Each Individual
What I learned through this issue was that some employees needed an extra push and reminder about scheduled events whereas other employees were more reliable in remembering such events, and didn't need reminded. I found by being persistent it helped keep things scheduled and on track throughout my internship experience. I also learned that communication can differ for each individual, some won't need to be reminded and others will and I believe that is an important concept to remember when working with others.
Core Issue II: Different Styles of Communication
Another issue that I identified within my time at my internship site was that there were many different styles of communication that conflicted with my own as well as others. Some of the differenet forms of communication are either electronically communicating or verbally communicating with one another.
Investigative Strategies: Adjusting to Different Forms of Communication
Throughout my internship experience I noticed that some employees preferred using electronic communication such as texting and calling other individuals to get information, whereas some employees preferred sending emails and getting information that way. This seemed to conflict with others based off of not getting vital information to one another and often having miscommunication among each other. A strategy I used for this issue was to match the same communication style they use. For instance if an employee is strictly emailing, then I would email them when needing information becuase it was what worked best for them.
Outcomes: Matching Communication Styles is the Most Effective
The outcome I was able to pull from this issue was that it was best to communicate to others in the way they preferred to communicate. For example if a person was more likely to text or call others I would do the same to them because it was what worked best. Even though I prefer to email rather than call others, I understand after working through this issue that it is vital to be flexible with how you communicate with others because not everyone will be comfortable with your form of communication.
Summary
Communication can occur in many different ways however it is important to recognize how others can perceive effective communication differently. Some individuals see communication as something to be taken lightly and flexible whereas others see it more literal and concrete. Thus the effectiveness of communication changes on an indivdiual basis. Overall this experience has been a great learning opportunity for myself, it taught me various concepts including how communication between and with different employees vary. Although the Blair Regional YMCA was not my first choice for my internship experience I am glad and thankful I was given the opportunity to complete my internship there.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank both of my parents who were supportive both financially and emotionally throughout my college experience as well as the rest of my family and friends who were also supportive throughout my journey.
Credits:
Created with images by StartupStockPhotos - "student typing keyboard" • Robzor - "psu lion mountain lion" • DarkmoonArt_de - "book table filler"