Many business students are familiar with the pressure to getinternships or part-time jobs in their career field while inschool. The surest route to the career track for many is to take onthese limited-duration work assignments. Internships do giveemployers an easy way to size up potential applicants in a settingidentical to the one in which they would perform. And unlikeemployees, interns are easily terminated if they don’t pan out.It’s the same situation for part-time or summer workers, who aresometimes let go at a moment’s notice. Internships are such apowerful tool for finding jobs that some students have begun totake on low-paid or even unpaid work assignments. While such “earlybird” internships used to be primarily associated with largeorganizations, many startups have begun to attract students. Forexample, Remy Agamy took an internship at a three-person designcompany, knowing that it wasn’t likely to turn into a job. Still,in the job market she found that other prospective employers werekeen on learning what she’d done in this internship. “I think wetalked more about my eight-week internship than my four years ofconsulting experience,” she said. The value of internships forstudents, however, has long been questioned. While there may be apromise of a chance to learn, many students complain of doinglittle more than acting as unpaid, unskilled labor. ChristinaIsnardi is one student who felt exploited by the system. Shedescribed working 16- or 17-hour days at Lions Gate Entertainment,doing work like taking breakfast orders or working in locations farfrom the actual film set. “We just feel as though our dreams areholding us hostage to this unfair, unethical labor practice.”Isnardi’s experiences are not uncommon. Interns working fororganizations as diverse as MTV, Warner Music Group, and MadisonSquare Garden describe similar experiences, which is why all theseorganizations have all faced lawsuits from former interns. In whatmight seem like a dream job, other students have negotiatedgreat-sounding internships at organizations that regularly hireinterns and pay them, but then don’t know what to do with thesetemporary employees. One student we know of was encouraged to makethe best use of his time during his summer internship in a majorcity, including taking a paying job elsewhere and just staying intouch by phone when work hours overlapped! Because of hisingenuity, he reported it was a very productive summer, but theinternship didn’t provide the learning opportunity he was seeking.Many major organizations maintain internship programs as part of abroader corporate social responsibility (CSR) value. Whetherinternships have value remains an open question. Most of thecontroversy does suggest that students need to know the detailsbefore agreeing to these arrangements, because not all internshipsoffer a fair living wage or a strong career experience. HRdepartments are responsible for monitoring and designing internshipprograms. Question 1: Discuss the main concerns in the case. Whyare these problems related to OB and HR? explain.

Question 2: As an upcoming employee student, what specificcharacteristics would you look for in an internship? Is there anyform of good practice in intership at Lions Gate Entertainment?Discuss.

Question 3: In line with your answers in question 1, what arethe recommendations you can offer? Be s[pecific with youranswers.