THE ROLES OF PROACTIVE BEHAVIORS IN MEDIATING ENVIRONMENTAL COGNITION AND INTERNSHIP LEARNING OUTCOMES

Abstract

The policy of the Chinese government has emphasized the integration of industry and education in vocational education to cultivate high-quality blue collar. The internship is a testing ground for integrating industry and education, an important part of vocational education, a talent pool for the enterprise’s human resource accumulation, and a rehearsal opportunity for students to prepare for their future careers. The internship is therefore a special workplace integrating education, learning, and working.  This study deconstructs the internship environmental cognition from three dimensions: job demand, resources, and support. Two proactive behaviors are introduced into this research based on the characteristics of learning by doing. The job crafting behavior focuses on job and knowledge management behavior based on learning, which are selected as mediating variables. Firstly, this research emphasizes the conceptual underpinning of internship environmental cognition and proactive behaviors which combine educational and working purposes. According to the literature review, it finds that positive environmental cognition will trigger proactive behavior (job crafting behavior and knowledge management behavior). Secondly, proactive behaviors are helpful in producing good internship learning outcomes. The interns’ work environment cognitive feelings and proactive behaviors jointly explain the learning outcome of internship in any circumstance. This study implies a new research framework consisting of enterprise input and personal behaviors as the determinants of internship learning outcomes. Finally, the literature on work environmental cognition and two important proactive behaviors established a reference for internship design. Providing suggestions for enterprises and schools to conduct work design. And give interns behavioral guidance on how to handle the work environment then produce a good internship outcome.

KEYWORDS: intern, environmental cognition, job crafting behavior, personal knowledge management behavior, intern learning outcome