Converting interns into regular employees: The role of intern–supervisor exchange Philip S. Rose a, ⁎, Stephen T.T. Teo b , Julia Connell c a Department of Global Business, Hannam University, O-jeong Dong, Dae-deok Gu, Daejeon 306-791, South Korea b New Zealand Work Research Institute, AUT Business School, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand c Graduate Research School, University of Technology Sydney, City Campus, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia article info abstract Article history: Received 8 November 2013 Available online 25 December 2013 Internship participation has undergone rapid expansion over the past three decades, to a point where today, many graduates and internship host-organisations regard internships as the preferred career entry point into a range of professional vocations. To date, however, there has been a dearth of studies examining factors that can influence the conversion of interns into regular employees with their host-organisations. This study bridges that gap as it involved the collection of data at three time intervals from 303 intern–supervisor dyads (n = 606), in order to determine the key predictors of intern conversion. Findings indicated that although intern– supervisor exchange played a strong role in influencing intern's performance, learning opportunities and satisfaction it did not play a significant role in predicting both the intern's and the supervisor's conversion intentions. Nonetheless, both intern's and supervisor's conversion intentions measured during the internship period did play a strong role in predicting actual conversion to employment at the host-organisation subsequent to the intern's graduation. Thus, this study begins to shed light on the dynamics on intern conversion, as a pivotal early juncture in an employee's career lifespan. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Internships LMX Career exploration Recruitment & selection Career lifespan 1. Introduction For university students internships are a key means of career exploration, whilst for organisations internships are an important means by which to attract and identify talented future employees. Subsequently, internship participation is becoming an increasingly prevalent pathway into a range of university graduate vocations (Gerdes, 2009; National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE), 2013). The proliferation of internships can largely be attributed to their ability on one hand to provide host organisations with the opportunity to evaluate potential job applicants in actual workplace settings prior to formal employment, whilst on the other it also allows interns to evaluate their fit with potential employers and vocations prior to making a long-term career commitment. This unique ‘try before you buy’ approach to employment offered by internships means that internships are becoming a workplace context of increasing relevance to organisational and vocational researchers alike (Gomboa, Paixão, & Jesus, 2013; Zhao & Liden, 2011). However, with the exception of a recently emerging stream of literature (Hurst, Good, & Gardner, 2012; Zhao & Liden, 2011), internship research has been dominated by studies conducted from the intern's perspective, focused largely on learning outcomes (Hynie, Jensen, Johnny, Wedlock, & Phipps, 2011; Mihail, 2006), or widely on the career benefits of internship participation for interns in general terms (Cheung & Arnold, 2010; Linn, Ferguson, & Egart, 2004), rather than as a stage in an employee's career path within a particular host organisation. Therefore, further empirical investigation of internships, as a pivotal career transition point in an employee's career life span, is needed in order to provide insight into the Journal of Vocational Behavior 84 (2014) 153–163 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Philiprosenz@gmail.com (P.S. Rose), drstephen.teo@gmail.com (S.T.T. Teo), julia.connell@uts.edu.au (J. Connell). 0001-8791/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.12.005 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Vocational Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb