Abstract:
The following report deals with the internship undertaken by Michelangelo Maschio, student enrolled
through the Scribe 21 Double Degree in International Business programme. The work experience has
been maturated at McGregor Tan Pty Ltd, one of the most experienced full-service market research
agencies in Australia. During the placement, the student worked closely with the Quantitative and
Qualitative teams, contributing to the insights-creation process for the researches commissioned to
McGregor Tan.
This reflective report is divided into four sections: overview of the internship, overview of the host
organization, reaction to the internship and conclusions.
The overview of the internship starts delineating the reasons why the student undertook the
internship, describing its duties and responsibilities and spelling out the necessary skills, knowledge
and attributes that the student needed to have at the start of the internship.
The second part of the report, Overview of the host organization, begins describing the company
with background information to give an outline of the organization involved. Successively, the
company culture is analysed to portrait the environment in which the student has been working for
four weeks. Concepts borrowed from Hofstede (1980,1985), Lewis (1999) and Trompenaars
(1999,2003) have turned out to be extremely helpful in delineating the traits of the organization’s
corporate culture. Eventually, a detailed description of the tasks performed by the student outlines
the activities carried out during the internship and the software packages employed (Microsoft Office
pack, Q analytics and Revelation).
The third part deals with the reaction to internship, starting with a global evaluation followed by the
description of the areas in which the student developed skills and knowledge, for example IT-related
and communication skills. Successively is described the relationship with other co-workers and the
supervisor, with a focus on the cultural aspect of the experience. Here other cross-culturalPROF 3500 - Internship Reflective Report
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management concepts are borrowed from Lewis (1999), in order to explain the observations and
feelings towards the people surrounding the student in the daily routines. Particular attention to the
relationship with the supervisor is paid, since he was having a more similar cultural milieu than the
other people of the company.
Finally, the conclusions are split into two parts. The first one relates to the linkages between the
internship and the university classroom teaching found in two courses: Business Research Methods
(Commerce 7039) and Cross-Cultural Management (INTBUS 7500). The second part consists in a final
reflection considering the overall context of master’s degree, how the student progressed and
concluded the studies with what should be the start of his working career.