The increased focus on employability and work relevance in higher education has enforced a demand for more and better work-integrated learning opportunities in management education. While research indicates several positive benefits of this type of collaboration between higher education institutions and industry organizations, there is also research that shows that both learning outcomes and internship satisfaction is moderated by quality aspects of the internship. A key moderator that has been identified is the supervisor role in host organizations. Yet, the research on how to manage this role is limited and few empirical studies on this exist, particularly within management education.

This study aims to convey the internship supervisors’ perspectives on how to take on and adapt the supervisor role. The study applies a qualitative approach and data has been gathered during two cohorts of internship courses through semi-structured interviews, an online qualitative survey and two workshops post-internship. The data has been analyzed through first and second cycle coding in NVivo.

The findings of the study indicate that the supervisor role is indeed perceived to be a balancing act by the supervisors in the host organizations. Based on a theoretical framework from mentoring literature and work-integrated learning, the study finds that supervisors emphasize a need to balance three main elements when attending to their supervisor tasks during an internship; balancing of appropriate work tasks, balancing of the organization's need and the students, and balancing of the proximity of the relation between student and supervisor. In terms of work task, degree of difficulty, degree of detailed instructions and degree of flexibility are important sub-categories. With regards to the organization's need, there is a need to balance the level of follow-up and the students learning with the needs and benefits of the organization in terms of dividend. Finally, the relation between the student and the supervisor is perceived to be of key importance, particularly with regards to challenging the students and at the same time supporting them, as well as when it comes to proximity in supervision follow-up vs. autonomy.

The study provides both practical implications for work-integrated learning and a theoretical advancement of the understanding of the supervisor role. By providing a more fine-grained understanding of the industry supervisor role in work-integrated, the study also points to important future directions of further research.

Keywords: Work-integrated learning, internship, work placement, management education.