Abstract:Interior design educators must stay informed about new developments in design practice. Although informal visits to design firms are important, the quality of information gained could be improved through more formal and structured visits. The goal of this project was to develop a method for interior design educators to systematically collect information about current design practice while observing activities, processes, and service outcomes in design firms to inform their knowledge of entry‐level practice. Ba… Show more
“…Over the past 40 years, several studies have identified competencies needed for entry-level interior designers (Hernecheck, Rettig, & Sherman, 1983;Hoffman, 1983;Myers, 1982) and professional practice activities (Benhamou, 1980). Later studies focus on communication, business skills (Tew, 1992) and occupational expectations (Lee & Hagerty, 1996); followed by studies citing the importance of an ongoing connection between practice and education (Black, 2000;Blossom et al, 2002;Watson et al, 2003) and annual rankings of universities with the most-prepared students (Design-Intelligence [DI], 2012[DI], , 2013[DI], , 2014[DI], , 2015[DI], , 2016 and most recently factors influencing the motivations of internship providers (Fishburne, 2015).…”
Section: Review Of Literaturementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Academic programs can also use internships within the curriculum to supplement student-learning outcomes (Black, 2000), which can contribute to addressing the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) standards in addition to other broader university accreditation standards. Additionally, knowing what students are doing in the field assists faculty in staying current with practice (Watson, Guerin, & Ginthner, 2003), which allows for course updating and curriculum revisions.…”
Interior design, like other applied disciplines, has a clear career cycle requiring education and professional experience before becoming eligible for examination. Internships are often encouraged in academic curriculums for increased career placement and enhancement of student learning outcomes; they also serve as a benchmark for academic programs to evaluate their curriculum and its relevance to practice. As the design industry rapidly shifts the scope and needs in projects, it becomes more difficult for academic programs to assess practitioners' values as they relate to recent interns and entry‐level hires. Using a social constructivist approach, this longitudinal study aims to better understand practitioners' perceptions of soft and hard skill sets necessary for emerging interior design professionals. This study utilizes content analysis to evaluate practitioners' responses (N = 260) from 2006 to 2014 through a survey questionnaire that consisted of open‐ended questions aimed to evaluate senior‐level interior design students' performance during the required 400‐hour internship at a mid‐sized Southeastern university. The findings showed that soft skills were more often listed as positive attributes where interns performed exceedingly well. Furthermore, soft skills affected the willingness of practitioners to hire interns.
“…Over the past 40 years, several studies have identified competencies needed for entry-level interior designers (Hernecheck, Rettig, & Sherman, 1983;Hoffman, 1983;Myers, 1982) and professional practice activities (Benhamou, 1980). Later studies focus on communication, business skills (Tew, 1992) and occupational expectations (Lee & Hagerty, 1996); followed by studies citing the importance of an ongoing connection between practice and education (Black, 2000;Blossom et al, 2002;Watson et al, 2003) and annual rankings of universities with the most-prepared students (Design-Intelligence [DI], 2012[DI], , 2013[DI], , 2014[DI], , 2015[DI], , 2016 and most recently factors influencing the motivations of internship providers (Fishburne, 2015).…”
Section: Review Of Literaturementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Academic programs can also use internships within the curriculum to supplement student-learning outcomes (Black, 2000), which can contribute to addressing the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) standards in addition to other broader university accreditation standards. Additionally, knowing what students are doing in the field assists faculty in staying current with practice (Watson, Guerin, & Ginthner, 2003), which allows for course updating and curriculum revisions.…”
Interior design, like other applied disciplines, has a clear career cycle requiring education and professional experience before becoming eligible for examination. Internships are often encouraged in academic curriculums for increased career placement and enhancement of student learning outcomes; they also serve as a benchmark for academic programs to evaluate their curriculum and its relevance to practice. As the design industry rapidly shifts the scope and needs in projects, it becomes more difficult for academic programs to assess practitioners' values as they relate to recent interns and entry‐level hires. Using a social constructivist approach, this longitudinal study aims to better understand practitioners' perceptions of soft and hard skill sets necessary for emerging interior design professionals. This study utilizes content analysis to evaluate practitioners' responses (N = 260) from 2006 to 2014 through a survey questionnaire that consisted of open‐ended questions aimed to evaluate senior‐level interior design students' performance during the required 400‐hour internship at a mid‐sized Southeastern university. The findings showed that soft skills were more often listed as positive attributes where interns performed exceedingly well. Furthermore, soft skills affected the willingness of practitioners to hire interns.
“…In the last few decades, the characteristics, attributes, knowledge, and skills expected from entry-level interior designers in the United States has been well documented in seven studies (Baker & Sondhi, 1989;Douthitt & Hasell, 1985;Hoffman, 1983;Hernecheck et al, 1983;Myers, 1982;Scarton, 2012;Tarver, 2013) and professional practice activities (Benhamou, 1980). Later studies focused on communication, business skills (Tew, 1992) and occupational expectations (Lee & Hagerty, 1996); followed by studies citing the importance of an ongoing connection between practice and education (Black, 2000;Blossom et al, 2002;Watson et al, 2003) followed by research citing the importance of hard and soft skills needed for hiring emerging interior design professionals (Gale et al, 2017).…”
“…Other research also attests to the importance of understanding the business aspect of interior design. For example, Watson, Guerin, and Ginthner generated The Design Practice Update Manual instrument specifically to support academics understanding of current design practice issues and trends explaining, “it is essential for interior design educators to immerse themselves in design practice in a structured way, enabling them to update their knowledge of design practice” (Watson, Guerin, & Ginthner, , p. 102). Finally, the inclusion of “professional practice” as one of the six core categories in the interior design body of knowledge defined by Guerin and Martin () further speaks to the importance of business‐related issues in interior design education and research. The purpose of the study presented here was to assess the degree of burnout among practicing interior designers while also identifying which, if any, individual or situational factors could be contributing or associated with reported burnout levels .…”
Job turnover is often preceded by burnout, a psychological syndrome involving prolonged response to stressors on the job (Maslach & Leiter, 2008). This phenomenon is measured along a continuum ranging from job engaged to full burnout. Higher levels of burnout can result in turnover, excessive absenteeism, and numerous physical and emotional symptoms among employees. The purpose of this study was to assess levels of burnout among practicing interior designers, and identify both individual and situational factors relative to burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS) was used to measure burnout and a Job Satisfaction survey gathered basic demographic and situational (job-related) information from practicing interior designers (N = 130). The voluntary and anonymous surveys were distributed via US Mail and the response rate was 52%. Results revealed that study participants were experiencing a moderate level of burnout. However, when compared with other professions, interior designers rated highest in cynicism and second only to nurses in exhaustion, as measured by the MBI-GS. Statistically significant correlations and regressions were found between burnout and the individual factors of age and years of professional practice as well as the situational factors of workload, control, reward, and fairness. The results and implications of the study are relevant to both interior design practitioners and academics and the discussion calls upon these communities to reconsider discipline-based traditions and expectations that may exacerbate burnout to keep practitioners healthy and positively engaged in the profession.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
