PSY 382: Business Psychology Internship Course
Syllabus 2015
Instructor:
Dr. Kevin Ford
315 Psychology Bldg.
fordjk@msu.edu
.
Teaching Assistant
Jessica Santoro
santorojms@gmail.com
Office Hours: Due to this course being taught online, there are no scheduled office hours. Feel
free to contact us by email at any time. During the week, we will try and respond promptly,
usually within 24 hours.
General Information
This course will be using D2L for on-line course management and communication. You will be
asked to enter your MSU log in and password. Look under the “My Courses” section in
Psychology 382 Business Internship (section 2) for announcements and materials related to this
course. If you have any trouble using D2L, you can contact the helpdesk at (517) 355-2345 or 1800-500-1554 which is open 24/7. If you are unfamiliar with D2L, please complete the on-line
tutorial: from the D2L page, click on the help guide  D2L on-line training.
Required Materials for this Semester:
There is a set of readings to be completed each week. Each reading will be in a PDF file that you
can access via D2L. Readings are provided on the list of topics page in this syllabus. You are
also asked to view an on line presentation – so look at the requirements each week. This syllabus
is subject to modifications. Any modifications will be posted to the course web site at least one
week prior to implementation. It is the responsibility of the student to regularly check the
course web site for additional materials and course updates.
Course Purpose
Most of us will spend a large proportion of our time in work organizations as adults. By
understanding how organizations operate, you can become better at determining what type of
company you might want to work for and what issues you should really explore before taking a job
after your educational experiences here at MSU. You will obtain a broader understanding of how
workplaces operate. This course is designed to provide you with the skills to apply psychological
theories to the “real world,” of business. During this semester you will be spending the majority
of your time providing direct service through a designated placement site. You are also expected
to complete the readings, keep a weekly activity log, engage in online supervision/chats, and
write a paper reflecting on your experience and demonstrating how you are integrating theory
with practice.
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Course Format
This online course provides you with the opportunity to receive structured supervision of your
internship experience no matter where your business based work occur. The class opens May
18th . The class ends on Thursday, August 20th. There are 12 weeks of readings for the 14 week
semester. The last week of the internship (week of August 17th) you will complete the critical
paper that is discussed below.
Course Evaluation
This course is graded on a Pass / No Pass basis. Students can earn up to 400 points over the
semester and must earn a minimum of 284 points to pass the class.
12 weekly activity logs @ 20 points each
1 critical thought paper
1 site evaluation form from supervisor and student
6 weekly discussion forums @ 10 points each
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE
240
100
20
60
420 points
In addition to this point system, there is potential for immediate termination (with a grade of
0.0/NP) due to illegal, unethical or improper behavior. You also MUST ensure that your
supervisor’s evaluation of your performance is submitted to the instructor by the due date in
order for your grade to be released. Failure to do this could result in failing the course.
Course Activities
Weekly Activity Logs.. Your log book will detail your work during the internship.
Throughout the course, you will complete 12 logs. Log books will be evaluated on their
completeness and thoughtfulness. You need to electronically submit your log book to D2L at the
end of the week (by Sunday each week) (or send them to Jessica via his email address), Log
books submitted late will be marked down at least 1 point for each day late. The last log is due
the week of August 10th. The logbook template is on D2L. You can add each week to the same
document so that it is cumulative. Your log book MUST be organized in the following manner
and provide the details for each section:
Section 1 (3 points): Table of weekly activities. The table should include the date of each
activity, a brief description of the activity, and approximate amount of time spent. Total amount
of time spent per week must be included.
SAMPLE LOG BOOK SECTION 1
Week One
Date
Activity
Time Spent
5/21
Orientation to the business
2 hours
5/22
Training on job duties
4 hrs
5/23
Training cont’d
8 hrs
5/24
Attended meetings on performance management
4 hrs
5/25
Updated job descriptions
4 hrs
TIME SPENT:
22 hours
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Section 2 (7 points): Subjective report. Detail one project you are working on and what
you are learning relevant to how organizations work. Also, detail, what knowledge and skills you
are gaining by working on this project. What are your impressions of the agency in which you
are working? (one to two paragraphs)
An example report from last year looked like this:
“One project I am working is called Career Maps. It is an interactive program in which
employees can see all of the possible roles in their business unit as well as those in other units.
This will allow them to explore all possible ways to further develop their career, both vertically
as well as horizontally. Career Maps is innovative because it is the first program here to make
such information public, which will be quite a change to the culture at this company. Career
Maps was developed in response to employee engagement surveys. It will be launched in June
on the company’s performance management site, prior to performance evaluations, so employees
can prepare questions about their career paths to discuss with their supervisors. FAQs were
developed in order to aid managers in answering employee questions.
The projects I will be working on are all about developing talent. This is ironic, because
through working on these projects I will be developing my own talent. The biggest thing I’ve
gained this week is knowledge, both about the orientation of this an organization and talent
management as a focus in I/O psychology. Everyone I’ve met has had glowing remarks about
their experiences here and I anticipate a positive learning experience for myself as well. This
week was very much introductory, and now that I have the background knowledge, I hope to go
deeper to learn more things and acquire new skills”.
Section 3 (10 points): Summarize the readings (typically 3 readings per week) for the
week – what do you see as the main points of each article (two paragraphs per article). Then, tie
one of the concepts from one of your readings to the work you are currently doing for the
organization (or helped you learn something about yourself) i.e., something you gained from the
reading that you can apply to this organization (one to two paragraphs)- OR you can talk to
someone in the organization about one of the readings and discuss what their impressions are of
the ideas in an article).
Optional Section 4: Troubleshooting. What problems/obstacles, if any, did you
encounter in the last week? What concerns do you have? What plans do you have for resolving
them? Do you need our assistance in any area? If so, describe the problem and what assistance
you would like.
Final Critical Thought Paper (DUE up to August 20th at 5:00PM). Write a 5 page
“critical thought” paper about your business engagement experience. In particular, the paper
should include: (1) what you have learned about the business with whom you are working (one
page); (2) what idea or theoretical perspective from your readings that you found most helpful to
being successful in your internship – explain why this was an important idea/perspective to you
(2 pages); (3) the key knowledge or skills you developed in the internship as well as
disappointments, surprises, and highlights from your experience (one page); and (4) how the
experiences from this internship will (or won’t) influence your future career plans (one page).
Six Weekly Discussion Forums. Each student is expected to participate in six
“discussion forums” throughout the semester, to discuss your internship with other students from
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the course. While students are welcome to participate in more than six discussion forums, no
more than 60 points (10 points per chat room) can be earned from this activity. A question will
be given for each week as a starter for the discussion for that week.
Site Evaluation Form (DUE AUG 18th). I would like to know your impressions of your
internship site. Would you recommend it to others? What was positive? What needs to be
improved? A site evaluation form can be found on the D2L course website. Please complete the
evaluation by August 12th at 5pm EST.
Intern Evaluation Form (DUE AUG 18th). You are responsible for asking your
internship supervisor to complete an evaluation of your work (the form is on D2L) and to submit
that form to Kevin Ford directly at fordjk@msu.edu . I use this form in part to write your letter of
recommendation for you, and may use it to determine the number of points you should receive,
so this is extremely important.
Academic Integrity
Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that “The student shares with the faculty
the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional
standards.” In addition, the Psychology Department adheres to the policies on academic honesty
as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of scholarship and grades, the allUniversity Policy on Integrity of scholarship and Grades, and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations
(see MSU website). Therefore, unless specifically directed otherwise, you are expected to
complete all course assignments, including homework, papers and exams, without assistance
from any source. You are expected to develop original work for this course; therefore, you may
not submit course work you completed for another course to satisfy the requirements for this
course. Students who violate MSU rules will receive a failing grade in this course.
Letters of Recommendation
Please remember that although this course is pass/fail, I will be basing any requests for letters of
recommendation on a number of factors: (1) how much effort you put into all aspects of the
course, (2) the extent to which you demonstrated the ability to transfer theory into practice, and
(3) your internship supervisor’s evaluation of your work. We hope you put 100% of your effort
into this experience so you will get 100% out as well.
D2L Tracking
Please be aware that D2L tracks all student login information. For example, it tracks when you
have logged into D2L and when you have logged out. It also tracks when you submit
assignments. This is helpful for the instructor because it allows me to resolve issues if there is a
problem with the D2L system in terms of logging on and/or gaining access to the various
sections of the site. Tracking can also help me resolve disputes about assignments..
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Topics and Readings
Week 1: Career Planning and Business Trends (Due: May 23rd or May 30th)
Objectives:
Assess current skill levels and efficacy regarding applying organizational psychology in
workplace settings.
Understand key business trends affecting organizations
Readings:
Preparing Yourself in Graduate School
Consulting & Business Skills
Overview of I/O Consulting, p11-16
Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the new world of work
Week 2: Understanding Internal and External consultant roles (Due May 30th or June 6th)
Objectives:
Understand key roles of internal and external consultants
Become aware of pros and cons of different types of consulting arrangements
Readings:
Body of Knowledge for consultants, p.23-28
The Role of the Internal Consultant, p45-51
Sinoway, E. (2012, December). No, you can’t have it all. Harvard Business Review, 111114
Future Insights: The top trends for 2014 according to HR subject matter expert panels
Week 3: Getting to Know the Organization: Assessment and Entry (Due: June 6th or 13th)
Objectives:
Recognizing key information for rapid and effective organizational assessment
Developing skills for assessing organizational needs
Readings:
Establishing successful client relationships, p205-213
The Powell-Kole Company: Example of an assessment
Conducting initial project meetings
Week 4 Thinking About Organizations (Due June 13th or June 20th)
Objectives:
A lens for thinking about organizations
Readings:
Systems thinking: The heart of twenty first century leadership
Achievet (2013). Three strategies that will elevate organizational accountability
immediately: Creating a culture of individual accountability.
Week 5: Facilitation and Personal Skills (Due June 20th or June 27th)
Objectives:
Enhance observation skills
Learn to run an effective meeting
Understand how to facilitate a focus group
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Readings:
Upton and Maradem
Interviews and focus groups: Quintessential organizational development techniques.
Edmondson, A. (2011, April). Strategies for learning from failure. Harvard Business
Review, 49-55.
Week 6: Persuasive communication/building the “business case” (Due June 27th or July
3rd)
Objectives:
Improve the persuasiveness of oral and written communications
Understand what making a “business case” for a project entails
Readings:
Meetings that work: plans bosses can approve
The necessary art of persuasion.
How to pitch a brilliant idea
Week 7: Developing Frameworks for Understanding Organizations (Due July 3rd or July
10th)
Objectives:
Broaden your thinking about organizational systems and how their interrelate
Identify levers can you use to improve organizational effectiveness
Readings:
Improving service delivery and effectiveness: Taking an organizational learning approach
to consulting.
What is culture Anyway?
Week 8: Making Effective Presentations (Due July 10th or July 17th)
Objective:
Effectively summarizing information
Improve organization and delivery of presentations
Improve one’s skill in handling criticism
Readings:
How to become an authentic speaker
Preparing and Presenting Survey Results to Influence Audiences
How to Create Presentations That Spark Action
Week 9: Data Presentation: Tools in the Toolkit (Due July 17th or July 24th)
Effectively summarize quantitative data for an applied audience
Readings:
The basics of organizational improvement
Duarte, N. (2013). Cultivating a healthy relationship with your slides. p92-97
In D. Zielinski (Ed.) Master Presenter: lessons from the world's top experts on becoming
a more influential speaker. Wiley.
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Altman, R (2013). Take the "three-word challenge" to test your bullet-point strength. p
107-112In D. Zielinski (Ed.) Master Presenter: lessons from the world's top experts on
becoming a more influential speaker. Wiley
Listen to:
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html
Week 10: Managing relationships (Due July 24th or July 31st)
Objectives:
Recognizing common problems in client relations
Understanding effective strategies for relationship management
Readings:
Networking
Building and maintaining client relationships.
Managing your boss.
Week 11: Ethics and Dilemmas (Due July 32st or August 8th)
Objectives:
Recognize basic contractual obligations in consulting settings
Develop awareness of common ethical dilemmas in practice and effective strategies for
managing them
Readings:
Ethical problems and consulting guidelines
Handling ethical matters
Global consulting in a culturally diverse world:
Ethical Cases (Pick 3 cases to read out of the set of ethic cases in this file).
Week 12: Project Management and Career Advice (Due August 8th or August 15th)
Objectives:
Discuss challenges in managing large scale projects, including staging resources,
developing and managing budgets, and developing and meeting timelines
Career advice regarding projects and goals
Readings:
The keys to successful project management
Performing a project premortem.
You, by the numbers: better performance through self-quantification, Harvard Business
Review.
Week 13: Critical Thought Paper (due no later than August 20thth)
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