Abstract
Orientation
This study is poised to explore the perceptions, views and experiences of fashion retail management interns.
Research purpose
This qualitative, phenomenological in-depth single-case study was to explore, describe and understand the experiences and perceptions of a small group of retail management interns who were placed on a retail management internship hosted in a fashion retailer in Cape Town.
Key questions
(i) What motivated the participants to study retail business management?
(ii) How did the participants learn about the internship and come to apply for it?
(iii) What were the participants’ expectations of the internship, and were they met?
(iv) What were the participants’ experiences during the internship?
Motivation for the study
The motive for the study was to gain and deepen the understanding of the views and experiences of retail management interns with the aim of uncovering potential reasons for low retention rates of interns at the Company.
Research philosophy
I believed that reality can only be appreciated by studying the subjective, constructed and interpreted experiences of individuals and by my interpretation of the retail management interns’ interpretations. Based on these ontological and epistemological philosophical assumptions, my research orientation in the study may be termed interpretivism. Thus, I wanted to describe the social world of interns through understanding their perspectives...
M.Phil.