My first week of my internship went better than I expected.\u00a0 I was expecting the relationship of my supervisor and I to be a bit strained as communication through Zoom was our only option.\u00a0 Additionally, our six hour time difference made meeting more difficult.\u00a0 However, I was still able to examine the leader-follower relations in the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen during COVID-19.\u00a0 My supervisor and I met on Monday, and then again on Friday with additional colleagues also researching breast cancer epidemiology.\u00a0 They all reminisced about how, before COVID-19, they could easily walk across the hallway to ask a question.\u00a0 Now they rely on their weekly Zoom calls.\u00a0 They seemed to miss each other greatly.\u00a0 They all discussed how they are working with students over the summer on their research and how the students seem to be very eager to conduct public health research right now.\u00a0 On the Zoom call that I participated in, I was able to see how the leaders and followers collaborated.\u00a0 It seemed as if the followers were more likely to ask questions, but their opinions on important matters were still highly regarded by the leaders.\u00a0 Followers seem to regard the leaders with respect and admiration.\u00a0 It seems as if trust is very high, as every position in this organization is difficult to get.\u00a0 Thus, everyone has excellent credentials and thus does not need to spend a lot of energy garnering trust.\u00a0 The department is also quite small, so everyone knows one another very well.\u00a0 Everyone seems to work autonomously and they create their own goals for the week.\u00a0 I have noticed from my work thus far and from my time spent studying abroad in Denmark that Danish people tend to prioritize a healthy work-life balance.\u00a0 Thus, if one worker doe not accomplish much during one week, they are never scolded or looked down upon.\u00a0 Decisions tend to be made in a decentralized manner, as witnessed by my ability to help make decisions even though I was simply an intern.\u00a0 Thus far in my internship, I have appreciated the guidance from my supervisor and other colleagues at the organization.\u00a0 Questions from followers seem to be appreciate and encouraged, and they are always answered with as much detail as possible to provide clarity.\u00a0 My supervisor is very well-known in the field of breast cancer epidemiology, but she does not act as if I am only there to further her research.\u00a0 She has told me numerous times now that this internship is for me, and that she hopes I am able to learn a lot through her guidance and support.\u00a0 Everyone has been incredibly kind and grateful for my help thus far, and I am very excited to continue my work throughout the remainder of the summer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My first week of my internship went better than I expected.\u00a0 I was expecting the relationship of my supervisor and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[76623],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leader-follower-relationships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}