PART TWO
RECRUITMENT AND PLACEMENT
C H A P T E R
T
Interviewing
Candidates
S i x
6
Lecture Outline
Strategic Overview
Basic Features of Interviews
Types of Interviews
Strategic HR
Administering the Interview
High-Performance Insight
HR.NET
Are Interviews Useful?
What Can Determine an Interview’s Usefulness?
First Impressions
Misunderstanding the Job
Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error and Pressure to
Hire
Nonverbal Behavior and Impression Management
Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness,
Gender, Race
The New Workplace
Designing and Conducting the Effective Interview
The Structured Situational Interview
How to Conduct and Interview
Entrepreneurs + HR
High-Performance Insight
In Brief: This chapter gives an
overview of types of interviews and
their features. It discusses common
mistakes in interviewing, and
outlines
effective
interviewing
techniques.
Interesting Issues: While structured
interviews have been shown to be
more valid than non-structured ones,
some managers tend to resist
structured interviews in favor of
trusting their own skills as an
interviewer.
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ANNOTATED OUTLINE
I.
Basic Features of Interviews
A. Types of Interviews include: appraisal interviews, exit interviews, and selection
interviews.
1.
Structured vs Unstructured Interviews – Unstructured or nondirective
interviews generally have no set format. Structured or directive interviews
generally identify questions and acceptable responses that are specified in
advance and the responses are rated for appropriateness of content.
2.
Interview Content: Types of Questions – Interviews can be classified
according to the nature or content of their questions, such as situational
interviews, job-related interviews, behavioral interviews, and stress
interviews.
a.
Strategic HR – Staples, Inc. is using carefully crafted behavioral
interviews to hire individuals that can help Staples meet its strategy of
rapid growth and entrepreneurship.
B. Administering the Interview
1.
Personal Interviews tend to be one-on-one where two people meet alone and
one interviews the other by seeking oral responses to oral inquiries. A panel
interview is where a group (panel) of interviewers questions the candidate
together. A mass interview is where a panel interviews several candidates
simultaneously.
2.
Computerized Interviews involve computers administering the interview.
Typically the questions are presented in a multiple-choice format, one at a
time, and the applicant is expected to respond to the questions on the screen
by pressing a key.
High-Performance Insight–This discussion box describes Great Western
Bank’s computerized interactive assessment aid, which helps in screeening
out unacceptable bank teller candidates. The 20-minute automated job
interview is recorded on a computer, and bank official later assesses the
recorded interview.
The HR.NET feature shows how online Web casts can be used to conduct
interviews and interactive career fairs.
C. Are Interviews Useful? – Studies confirm that the validity of interviews are greater
than previously thought, especially if they are structured and depending on the
traits they are assessing.

NOTES
Educational Materials to Use
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II.
What Can Undermine An Interview’s Usefulness?
A. First Impressions – One of the most consistent findings is that interviewers tend to
jump to conclusions about candidates during the first few minutes of the
interview.
B. Misunderstanding the Job – Interviewers who don’t know precisely what the job
entails and what sort of candidate is best suited for it usually make their
decisions based on incorrect or incomplete stereotypes of what a good applicant
is.
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C. Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error means that the order in which you see
applicants affects how you rate them. Pressure to Hire can undermine an
interview’s usefulness.
D. Nonverbal Behavior and Impression Management can have a surprisingly large
impact on an applicant’s rating. Mainly because, accurately or not, interviewers
infer the interviewee’s personality from the way he or she acts in the interview.
E. Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness, Gender, Race – Interviewers
have to guard against letting an applicant’s attractiveness, gender, and race play
a role in their rating.
F. Interviewer Behavior - Telegraphing refers to the interviewer inadvertently
evoking the expected answers.

III.
NOTES
Educational Materials to Use
Designing and Conducting the Effective Interview
A. The Structured Situational Interview procedure is as follows: Step 1: Job Analysis;
Step 2: Rate the Job’s Duty; Step 3: Create Interview Questions; Step 4: Create
Benchmark Answers; and Step 5: Appoint the Interview Panel and Conduct
Interviews.
B. How to Conduct the Interview
1.
Structure Your Interview: a) base questions on job duties; b) use specific jobknowledge, situational, or behaviorally-oriented questions and objective
criteria to evaluate the interviewee’s responses; c) train interviewers; d) use
the same questions with all candidates; e) use rating scales to rate answers;
f) use multiple interviewers or panel interviews; g) design questions that
reduce subjectivity, inaccurate conclusions, and bias; h) use a structured
interview form; and i) control the interview.
2.
Prepare for the Interview – The interview should take place in a private room
where interruptions can be minimized. Prior to the interview, the interviewer
should review the candidate’s application and resume, as well as the job
duties and required skills and traits.
3.
Establish Rapport – The interviewer should put the interviewee at ease so
he/she can find out the necessary information about the interviewee.
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4.
Ask Questions – The interviewer should follow the interview guide.
5.
Close the Interview – Leave time to answer any questions the candidate may
have and, if appropriate, advocate your firm to the candidate. Try to end the
interview on a positive note.
6. Review the Interview – Once the candidate leaves, and while the interview is
fresh on the interviewer’s mind, he/she should review his/her notes and fill in
the structured interview guide.
7. Entrepreneurs + HR—A streamlined procedure for crafting job-relevant
questions and interviews are offered in this section for entrepreneurs. It might
be a good discussion point to talk about what the barriers to carrying out this
plan would be for small business people. Would they view it as too much
work and too complicated? What are the potential costs if they do not utilize
the system?
8. High-Performance Insight—Toyota’s hiring process takes about 20 hours
and six phases, spread over five or six days. Phase I consists of initial
prescreening at the Kentucky Department of Employment Services. Phase II
consists of applicants taking the U.S. Employment Services General Aptitude
Test Battery (GATB) at the Kentucky Department of Employment Services.
Phase III consists of Toyota screening experts observing the applicants ingroup and individual problem-solving and discussion activities. Phase IV
consists of a one-hour group interview. Phase V consists of physical and
drug/alcohol tests. Phase VI concludes with Toyota closely monitoring and
coaching the selected applicants for the first six months. Toyota has found
that its total selection program has translated into improved performance.
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NOTES
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Educational Materials to Use
KEY TERMS
nondirective interview
An unstructured conversational-style interview. The interviewer pursues
points of interest as they come up in response to questions.
directive interview
An interview following a set sequence of questions.
situational interview
A series of job-related questions which focuses on how the candidate
would behave in a given situation.
behavioral interviews
A series of job-related questions that focus on how they reacted to actual
situations in the past.
job-related interview
A series of job-related questions which focuses on relevant past jobrelated behaviors.
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stress interview
An interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by a series of
often rude questions. This technique helps identify hypersensitive
applicants and those with low or high stress tolerance.
unstructured sequential
interview
An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion
after asking different questions.
structured sequential
interview
An interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially by several
supervisors and each rates the applicant on a standard form.
panel interview
An interview in which a group of interviewers questions the applicant.
mass interview
A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.
candidate-order error
An error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due to interviewing
one or more very good or very bad candidates just before the interview in
question.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Explain and illustrate the basic ways in which you can classify selection interviews. Interviews
can be classified according to: (1) degree of structure. This is the extent to which interviews are, or
are not, structure with previously designed questions so that each candidate must answer the same
things. (2) purpose. Interviews may be designed to accomplish several purposes, including
selection, performance appraisal feedback, etc. (3) content. The content of the questions may be
situational, job-related, or psychological. (4) the way the interview is administered. Interviews might
be conducted by a panel of interviewers, sequentially or all at once, computerized, or personally.
Students should also provide some illustrations of each.
2. Briefly describe each of the following possible types of interviews: unstructured panel
interviews; structured sequential interviews; job-related structured interviews.
In the
unstructured panel interview, the panel of interviewers asks questions as they come to mind. They
do not have a list of questions or points that need to be covered, but may follow many different
directions. The structured sequential interview consists of the candidate being interviewed one by
one with several different interviewers. Each interviewer conducts a structured interview that consists
of pre-determined questions and a structured evaluation form to complete. The job-related structured
interview consists of pre-determined questions, all of which are designed to assess the applicant's
past behaviors for job-related information.
3. For what sorts of jobs do you think computerized interviews are most appropriate? Why?
The computerized interview can be used as a screening device for virtually any type of position that
may generate a large number of applicants. It is less likely to be used for managerial positions.
However, if there are large numbers of applicants, it could certainly be just as useful there as in
skilled, professional, and unskilled positions.
4. Why do you think " situational interviews yield a higher mean validity than do job related or
behavioral interviews, which in turn yield a higher mean validity than do psychological
interviews?" The situational interview allows the candidate to answer situational questions based on
past experiences in which he or she might have made mistakes, but learned from them. The jobrelated (or behavioral) interview focuses primarily on past situations, but does not allow for changes
in the candidate due to the lessons that he or she might have learned from those experiences. The
psychological interview tends to be more speculative regarding traits that are difficult to really
measure.
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5. Similarly, how do you explain the fact that structured interviews, regardless of content, are
more valid than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance? The structured
interview helps to keep the interviewer focused on the types of behaviors, traits, or answers that are
desired and have been determined to be good predictors of job performance. Unstructured
interviews allow interviewers to become sidetracked with things like common interests and other
items that are not good predictors of job success.
6. Briefly discuss and give examples of at least five common interviewing mistakes. What
recommendations would you give for avoiding these interviewing mistakes?
 Snap Judgments: This is where the interviewer jumps to a conclusion about the candidate during the
first few minutes of the interview. Using a structured interview is one way to help avoid this, as well
as training of the interviewers.
 Negative Emphasis: When an interviewer has received negative information about the candidate,
through references or other sources, he or she will almost always view the candidate negatively. The
best way to avoid this is to keep references or other information from the interviewer. If possible,
have different people do the reference checks and the interviews and not share the information until
afterwards.
 Misunderstanding the Job: When interviewers do not have a good understanding of the job
requirements, they do not make good selections of candidates. All interviewers should clearly
understand the jobs and know what is needed for success in those jobs.
 Pressure to Hire: Anytime an interviewer is told that they must hire a certain number of people within
a short time frame, poor selection decisions may be made. This type of pressure should be avoided
whenever possible.
 Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error: When an adequate candidate is preceded by either an outstanding,
or a poor candidate, by contrast he or she looks either less satisfactory or much better. This can be
countered through interviewer training, allowing time between interviews, and structured interviews
with structured rating forms.
 Influence of Nonverbal Behavior: Candidates who exhibit stronger non-verbal behavior, such as eye
contact and energy level are perceived as stronger by the interviewers. This can be minimized
through interviewer training and structured interviews.
 Telegraphing: An interviewer might "give" the right answers to candidates they hope to hire. This can
be combated through structured interview questions, multiple interviewers, and interviewer training.
 Too Much / Too Little Talking: On either end of these extremes, the interviewer may not gather all the
information that is really needed to make an appropriate selection decision. Structured interviews
help keep this from happening.
 Playing District Attorney or Psychologist: Some interviewers misuse their power by turning the
interview into a game of "gotcha" or by probing for hidden meanings in everything the applicants say.
Structured interviews help keep this from happening.
7. Explain why you think that it is (or is not) important to select candidates based on their
values, as well as the usual selection criteria such as skills and experience. The responses
here may well fall into two groups: some may think it is important and other may not think it is
appropriate. Those who support using values in the selection criteria should point to issues such as:
each organization has values, so it is important to find candidates who support those organizational
values, some values are important to the welfare of the organization (honesty, etc.). Those who do
not support it will likely point to issues such as: values are a gray area and difficult to accurately
measure, using values can easily lead to adverse impact against some protected groups.
8. Briefly discuss how an interviewer can improve his or her performance. The students should
refer to the section in the chapter on designing and conducting the effective interview to form his/her
suggestions for how an interviewer can improve his/her perfomance.
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DESSLER COMPANION WEB SITE
We invite you to visit the Dessler homepage (http://www.prenhall.com/dessler) on the
Prentice Hall Web site for the best online business support available. This site
provides professors with a customized course Web site, including new
communication tools, one-click navigation of chapter content, and great resources,
such as Internet Resources, an HRCI Exam Prep Guide, assessment exercises, and
more.
INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTIVITIES
1.
Prepare and give a short presentation titled, “How to Be Effective As an Interviewer.” There
are several things you can do to prepare to be an effective interviewer. Some of the responses the
students should give include: structure the interview; prepare for the interview; establish rapport; ask
questions; close the interview; and review the interview.
2. Use the Internet to find employers who now do preliminary selection interviews with the aid of
the Web. Print out and bring examples to class. Do you think these interviews are useful?
Why or why not? The students should use the Internet to search the websites of various companies
to find examples of companies that use the Web for preliminary selection interviews. They should
provide the pros and cons of using the Web for preliminary selection interviews.
3. In groups, discuss and compile examples of “the worst interview I ever had.” What was it
about these interviews that made them so bad? If time permits, discuss as a class. Based on
their experiences the students should come up with various examples. They should also discuss
what they would suggest to have improved the interview.
4. In groups, prepare an interview (including a sequence of at least 20 questions) you’ll use to
interview candidates for the job teaching a course in Human Resources Management. Each
group should present theirs in class. The students should use this opportunity to design their own
interview questions using the suggestions given in the chapter.
5. Some firms swear by unorthodox interview methods. For example, Tech Planet, of Menlo Park,
CA, uses weekly lunches and “wacky follow-up sessions” as substitutes for first-round job
interviews. During the informal meals, potential staffers are expected to mingle, and they’re
then reviewed by the Tech Planet employees they meet at the luncheons. One Tech Planet
employee asks candidates to ride a unicycle in her office to see if “they’ll bond with the
corporate culture or not.” Toward the end of the screening process, the surviving group of
interviewees has to solve brainteasers, and then openly evaluate their fellow candidates’
strengths and weaknesses. What do you think of a screening process like this? Specifically,
what do you think are its pros, and cons? Would you recommend a procedure like this? If so,
what changes, if any, would you recommend? The students should use the information they’ve
learned in this chapter make judgments about this screening process.
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES & CASES
Experiential Exercise: In-Class Mock Interview
This exercise is explained in step-by-step instructions in the text. It gives students the opportunity to
practice developing a structured interview form and in conducting a structured situational interview.
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Application Case: The Out-of-Control Interview
1. How would you explain the nature of the panel interview Maria had to endure? Specifically, do
you think it reflected a well-thought-out interviewing strategy on the part of the firm, or
carelessness on the part of the firm's management? If it was carelessness, what would you
do to improve the interview process at Apex Environmental? It is fairly clear that the panel
interview was a stress interview designed to see how well she could handle difficult situations. In this
respect, it seems to have been a well-thought-out interviewing strategy, but there was a very clear
element of carelessness on the part of the firm's management. The panel was obviously not welltrained and was careless in the choice of questions that they used. Many of the questions were
clearly discriminatory and could be used against them in a gender-based discrimination suit.
2. Would you take the job offer if you were Maria? If you're not sure, is there any additional
information that would help you make your decision, and if so, what is it? Maria needs
additional information. What she does know is the nature of the job and the clear fit with her training
and skills. The additional information that she should seek involves the number of women who work
at Apex, the levels of management which they have attained, and the satisfaction of those women
with their treatment by the Apex management. The fact that the entire interview panel was composed
of men and their choice of questions leaves us with reservations about how she would be treated
once hired.
3. The job of applications engineer for which Maria was applying requires: (1) excellent
technical skills with respect to mechanical engineering; (2) a commitment to working in the
area of pollution control; (3) the ability to deal well and confidently with customers who have
engineering problems; (4) a willingness to travel worldwide; and (5) a very intelligent and wellbalanced personality. What questions would you ask when interviewing applicants for the
job? There are a wide variety of specific questions that could be posed to address these issues.
Questions need to be job-related, specifically to the requirements listed above. They also need to
clearly avoid any discriminatory areas.
Continuing Case: LearnInMotion.com
1. Tell us what we’re doing wrong.
interviewing and hiring.
The Better Interview
LearnInMotion has an inadequate, unstructured way of
2. In general, what can we do to improve our employee interviewing practices? Should we
develop interview forms that list questions for our various jobs? If so, what format should
these take? The students should include suggestions from the section on designing and conducting
the effective interview.
4. What are five questions we should ask salespeople candidates, and five questions we should
ask programmer candidates? In addition to using some of the suggested questions in the chapter,
the students should research interview questions on the Web.
Recruitment and Placement
PART-ENDING VIDEO CASE
Sylvie Aronsen, a director for BMG Music, meets with HR Executive, Paul
Fiolek, to discuss the situation she is facing with one of her new hires.
The new employee doesn’t seem to possess the necessary skills for the
position, and Sylvie wants to know what went wrong in the hiring process.
This segment focuses on the role of HR and the manager in the
placement process, as well as effective methods of recruitment.
For full video case and discussion questions, please visit the Faculty
Resource section of the Dessler Companion Web Site at:
http://www.prenhall.com/dessler
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CHAPTER 6 POWERPOINTS
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