Employment Interview
Frequently used to make selection decisions; popular across
cultures (especially European)
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--- Why?
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Candidates like them
Low cost
Used by other companies
Practical
Considered to be legal
• Social exchange (interpersonal) process
• Search for information
Source: Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas (2004). Personnel Psychology, 57, 639-683.
(Furnham, 2008)
Common Dimensions Measured in the Interview
Dimension
Frequency of Use
Definition
General Intelligence
16%
Ability to learn and evaluate information quickly; ability to effectively plan
and organize work; application of mental ability for solving problems.
Job Knowledge and Skills
10%
Declarative information (i.e., terms, values, names, and dates) and
procedural knowledge (i.e., actions, skills, and operations) specific to the
job; technical knowledge.
Personality
35%
Applied Social Skills
28%
Ability to function effectively in social situations; includes interpersonal
skills, oral communication skills, leadership, and persuasiveness.
Interests and Preferences
4%
Tendency toward certain activities; preference for certain work
environments or a particular type of work or profession; interest in certain
topics or subjects.
Organizational Fit
3%
Match between candidate and the organization’s values, goals, norms, and
attitudes; fit with unique organizational culture or climate.
Physical Attributes
4%
Evaluation of stamina and agility; and general characteristics, like an
evaluation of physical appearance.
Long-term disposition to act in certain ways; reflection of habitual behavior
with regard to five dimensions: conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, openness to experience, emotional stability.
Phases
Pre-interview Phase
• Review paper credentials of applicants
• Social media usage
Interview Phase
Interviewer Goals:
• Recruitment
• Assessing Person-Organization Fit
• Judgment vs. Decision-making
• Impression Management (e.g., others)
Interviewer Behavior
• Use of rating scales
• Note taking
Decision-Making Phase
Demographic factors (race and gender = small & mixed; age, disability, obesity,
pregnancy = lower: Macan & Merritt, 2011)
Role of negative information
Perceptual, attentional, attributional biases
Typical Interview Script
• Pre-contact activities (e.g., reviewing paper credentials)
• Establishing rapport
• Asking questions
• Answering questions
• Disengagement (ending, next steps in the process, escort out of
setting)
~ Common Problems With the “Traditional” Interview ~
• Variety of Interviewer Biases
* 1st Impressions
* Expectancy Effect
* Stereotype Matching (e.g. “ideal applicant)
• Lack of structure
Use of structure?
29% (Terpstra & Rozelle, 1993, 201 companies)
72% (Drogan & Yancey; 2011, 122 credit unions)
94% (Wang & Yancey, 2012, N = 94, top HR professionals in credit unions)
Structure? 1) questions, 2) response evaluations, and 3) combining scores (Conway, Jako, & Goodman, 1995)
1) job-relatedness of the interview, 2) standardization of the process, and 3) candidate evaluation
(Diboye, Wooten & Halverson, 2004)
1) question consistency, 2) question sophistication, 3) establishing rapport, and 4) evaluation
(Chapman & Zweig, 2005)
• Disagreement on the Desirability of Interview Responses
• Little Formal Interviewer Training (44% receive such training: Wang & Yancey, 2012)
• Subjective (or no) Scoring System (50%: Wang & Yancey, 2012)
• Interview Conducted and Scored by One Person
Overview of Situational Interview Process
1) Identify critical incidents (e.g., via a job analysis)
2) Place Critical Incidents into Relevant Job Dimensions (e.g., Safety,
Responsibility, Interpersonal Skills)
3) Reword Critical Incidents Into Question Format
4) Decide on the desirability of responses [Think of how good, average, and
mediocre workers would have answered such a question]
5) Conduct interviews in groups of two or more. Each interviewer scores
applicant independently. A single score is given after group discussion or
statistical combination.
Situational Interview Process (cont.)
Teamwork
Situational Interview (cont.)
A customer comes into the store to pick up a watch he had left for repair. The repair was supposed
to have been completed a week ago, but the watch is not back yet from the repair shop. The
customer is very angry. How would you handle the situation?
1 (low)
Tell the customer the watch is not back yet and ask him or her to check back with you later.
3 (average) Apologize, tell the customer that you will check into the problem, and call him or her back later.
5 (high)
Put the customer at ease and call the repair shop while the customer waits
For the past week you have been consistently getting the jobs that are the most time consuming (e.g.,
poor handwriting, complex statistical work). You know it’s nobody’s fault because you have been
taking the jobs in priority order. You have just picked your fourth job of the day and it’s another
“loser.” What would you do?
1 (low)
Thumb through the pile and take another job.
3 (average) Complain to the coordinator, but do the job.
5 (high)
Take the job without complaining and do it
Behavior Description Interviewing and Scoring
1.
It is often necessary to work together in a group to accomplish a
task. Can you tell me about the most recent experience you had
working as part of a group?
(The following are probe questions.)
a. What was the task?
b. How many people were in the group?
c. What difficulties arose as a result of working as a group?
d. What role did you play in resolving these difficulties?
e. How successful was the group in completing its task?
f. How often do you work as part of a group?
2.
Tell me about a time when you aided an employee in
understanding a difficult policy.
(The following are probe questions.)
a. What was the policy?
b. How did you know that the employee was having
trouble understanding?
c. What did you do or say that helped?
d. How did you know that you had been successful?
e. What steps did you take to change the policy?
Behavior Description Interview
Sample Interview Questions Based on KSAs
KSA 1:
Ability to give verbal work instructions to laborers regarding
construction and repair
What instructions would you give a work crew that was about to string a 220volt electric cable in a laboratory building under construction?
KSA 2:
Ability to schedule work crews for specific tasks
You are in charge of a work crew of twelve. Included in this are four
experienced carpenters and two electricians. These six are also permitted to
do other jobs. You are to finish a 100 200 area that will have five separate
offices and a general meeting room. Tell me the first five tasks that you would
assign your crew and how many people you would put on each task. How long
should each task take?
KSA 3:
Ability to direct multiple work crews and work projects simultaneously
Go back to the situation in the previous question. Tell me which tasks you
would try to complete in the first two days. Which sequence of tasks would you
schedule? How would your work crews know when to start a new task?
Interview Rating Scales for KSAs
Discrimination Cases Regarding the Interview
Key Factors
• Demographic composition of the interviewers (e.g., all White, all male)
• Unstructured format
• No objective criteria for making decisions (e.g., pass/fail)
• Content of interview questions (e.g., different questions asked to males
vs. females, biased questions)
• No guidelines for conducting and scoring the interview
• No operational definitions of KSAs
• Lack of similarity between interview questions and work environment
• Vague instructions for rating applicant performance
• No scoring standards or cutoff scores
Cases in Which Discrimination
Was Found
Court Comments
Stamps v. Detroit Edison (1973)
All interviewers were white
Interviewers made subjective judgments about applicant’s personality
No structured or written interview format
No objective criteria for employment decisions
Weiner v. Country of Oakland
(1976)
All interviewers were male
Interview questions suggested bias against females
Selection decision rule not clearly specified
King v. TWA (1984)
Female applicant did not receive same questions as males
History of interviewer’s gender bias
Robbins v. White-Wilson
Medical Clinic (1981)
No guidelines for conducting or scoring interview
Interviewer’s evaluation seemed racially biased based on own comments
Gilbert v. City of Little Rock, Ark.
(1986)
Content validity inappropriate defense for measurement of mental
processes
Failure to operationally define KSAs
Dissimilarity between exam questions and actual work situations
Bailey et al. v. Southeastern Area
Joint Apprenticeship (1983)
Content of questions discriminatory toward women
Defense did not conform with EEOC Uniform Guidelines
Unclear instructions for rating applicant performance
Jones v. Mississippi Department
of Corrections (1985)
Little evidence of specific questions used
No scoring standards
No cutoff score for selection
Ways To Structure Interview Content
• Base questions on a job analysis (e.g., KSAs)
• Ask the same questions of each candidate
• Limit prompting, follow-up questions, and elaboration on questions
• Ask better types of questions (e.g., hypothetical situations, ones indicative of past
behavior, indicating relevant background of candidates, requiring specific
demonstration of knowledge)
• Sufficient interview length and number of questions
• Withhold/control ancillary information
• Do not allow questions from candidate until after the interview
Ways To Structure The Evaluation Process
• Rate Each Answer or Use Multiple Scales
• Use Detailed, Anchored Rating Scales
• Take Detailed Notes
• Use Multiple Interviewers
• Use Same Interviewer(s) for All Candidates
• Don’t Discuss Candidates or Answers Between Interviews
• Provide Detailed Interviewer Training
• Use Statistical Versus Clinical Prediction
Interviewer Training
• Critical Interviewer Skills
 Accurately receiving information
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Hearing what the respondent said
Observing the applicant’s behavior
Remembering the information received (note taking)
 Avoiding errors in evaluating information received
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The halo effect
Distributional rating errors of central tendency and leniency
The similar-to-me effect
The contrast effect
The first-impressions error
Interviewer Training (cont.)
• Critical Interviewer Skills (cont’d)
 Regulating behavior in delivering questions
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Not talking excessively
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Not interacting differently due to interviewer similarity
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to applicant
Maintaining control of the interview
• Results of Interviewer Training
 Reduces common rater errors
 Enhances reliability of interviewer judgments
 Fosters more sophisticated questioning strategies
Race Discrimination and Self-Fulfilling
Prophecy in Interviewing
Whites interviewed black applicants
Race Discrimination and Self-Fulfilling
Prophecy in Interviewing (cont.)
Study 2: Interviewers trained to act in ways to those in the first study:
A) Immediate (way Whites were interviewed)
B) Non-immediate (way Blacks were treated)
Interviewer Training (cont.)
• Components of an Interviewer Training Program
 Identify specific behavioral objectives
 Have interviewer trainees demonstrate and review their
skills (use of video)
 Evaluate trainees and offer suggestions for change
 Have interviewers attend training sessions on a regular
basis to acquire, refresh, and maintain interviewer skills