ABSTRACT
It is important for student interns to have an organizational perspective in order to examine how a criminal justice agency or private-sector company operates. In analyzing the formal and informal structures of an agency-the official and unofficial relationships and channels that affect the environment and how things are accomplished-the intern will see how the structure of the agency has an effect on the behavior of organizational members and agency clients. This chapter applies Weber’s classic characteristics of a bureaucracy (Thibault et.al., 2014, pp. 79-80) to illustrate the dynamic forces that occur in both the formal and informal structures. This chapter also presents some current organizational trends affecting the workplace and an overview of human resource administration issues as they relate to recruitment and selection, training, and collective bargaining. More importantly, the success or failure of your internship will depend on how well you adjust to the organizational demands of your field site.
