PREPARATION OF COLLEGE GRADUATES FOR THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

A large number of college students are lacking in the skills and techniques that are considered basic for a job interview. In order to investigate the problem systematically and objectively, a crude instrument was designed to be used in a structured interview with recruitment personnel. The need for assisting college students for employment interviews is apparent from the findings. Industry has expressed an interest in working cooperatively with the educators in setting up a program to prepare students at the college level for the job interview.     

DEVELOPING A NOMOLOGICAL NETWORK FOR INTERVIEW STRUCTURE: ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE STRUCTURED SELECTION INTERVIEW

A review by Campion, Palmer, and Campion (1997) identified 15 elements of interview structure and made predictions regarding how applicants and interviewers might react to these elements. In this 2-sample field survey of 812 interviewees and 592 interviewers from over 502 organizations, interview structure was best described by 4 dimensions: (a) Questioning Consistency, (b) Evaluation Standardization, (c) Question Sophistication, and (d) Rapport Building. Interviewers with formal training and those with a selection rather than recruiting focus employed higher levels of interview structure. In addition, reactions to increased structure were mixed. Both higher structure (Question Sophistication) and lower structure (Rapport Building) were positively related to interviewer reactions. Less than 34% of interviewers had any formal interview training. However, interviewers were confident that they could identify the best candidates regardless of the amount of interview structure employed. Applicants reacted negatively to the increased perceived difficulty of structured interviews, but perceptions of procedural justice were not affected by interview structure.     

THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW: A SUMMARY AND REVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH1

After a quick recapitulation of previous reviews of the employment interview, recent research from about 1975 is reviewed and summarized. Research dealing with the reliability and validity of the interview, methodological issues, decision making, interviewer training, minority characteristics, nonverbal behavior, interviewee characteristics, and interviewee training is summarized. Trends and directions are noted, suggestions for further research extended, and a discussion of why persistence in the use of interview exists is presented.     

THE ROLE OF THE TRADITIONAL RESEARCH DESIGN IN UNDERESTIMATING THE VALIDITY OF THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

Building upon the suggestions of Arvey and Campion (1982) and Zedeck, Tziner, and Middlestadt (1983), this paper calls into question the traditional approach to validating the employment interview. A general review of the literature reveals that individuals are likely to differ in their ability to provide accurate predictions of employee behavior and that interviewers often differ in their constant tendency to make favorable or unfavorable ratings. A review of published validation studies shows that most researchers fail to consider these tendencies and, therefore, may be inappropriately collapsing data across multiple interviewers. Through analytic argument we conclude that reviews of the existing literature will likely underestimate the usefulness of this widely used technique.     

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SELF-APPRAISALS OF JOB PERFORMANCE

This paper reviews literature of psychometric properties of self-appraisals of work performance. It summarizes evidence of leniency, variability, halo, bias, and construct validity. Comparisons with appraisals by supervisors, peers, and subordinates suggest that self-appraisals tend to show more leniency, less variability, and less discriminant validity. Different factor structures have been found among self, supervisor and peer-ratings. On the other hand, self-appraisals showed less halo. Self-appraisals were significantly correlated with other sources in some studies and failed to correlate in many others. Existing data do not allow any conclusion whether the quality of self-appraisals is a function of scale format, amount or rater training, type of judgment, or purpose of appraisal. The effects of the observed psychometric qualities of self-appraisals on various applications are discussed. Problems may exist when they are used for administrative decision making, diagnosis of training needs, applied criterion measurement, measurement of constructs in basic research, or for selection purposes.     

A REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE JOB DIAGNOSTIC SURVEY

Empirical research is reviewed to evaluate the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, scale discrimination, factorial validity, convergent validity across raters and methods, and methods bias of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) of Hackman and Oldham (1975, 1980). The review shows that the JDS has important psychometric limitations, but is able–when used properly–to provide useful information about perceived job properties. Suggestions are made for improving the JDS and for developing additional instruments that assess a broader array of job dimensions and that assess them more objectively than current measures. Job characteristics researchers need a diverse portfolio of measures to accomplish different purposes.     

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SUBORDINATE RATINGS OF MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE

The purpose of the present study was to compare the psychometric properties of subordinate ratings of managerial performance to those of supervisor and self ratings. Subordinate ratings (n = 365), self-ratings (n = 80) and supervisor ratings ( n = 80) were obtained on eight performance dimensions for middle level managers in a multinational corporation. Multitrait-multimethod analysis of variance indicated significant effects for convergent validity, halo error, and discriminant validity. Comparisons between rating sources indicated that subordinate ratings are more similar to supervisor ratings than to self ratings in terms of convergent validity and leniency effect. A comparison of the present results to other studies indicated less convergent validity, more discriminant validity, and less halo error than found by others.     

RECONSIDERING THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW: A REVIEW OF RECENT LITERATURE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Literature since the last comprehensive review of research on the employment interview is summarized, and suggestions for future studies in this area are described. Major changes in findings regarding the validity of the interview, the impact of applicant sex, and the effect of interviewer characteristics/behavior on applicant reactions, as well as other issues, are reported. Contrary to the widely held belief that the interview has low validity, recent research indicates at least modest validity for this selection tool. Conversely, the effect of the campus interview on applicant reactions has been seriously questioned. Researchers are urged to examine several areas in social psychology, including the literature on attitudes-intentions-behavior, the elaboration likelihood model, and theories of discrimination to achieve greater understanding of the employment interview.     

BENCHMARKS AFFECT PERCEPTIONS OF PRIOR DISABILITY IN A STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

Though covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, job candidates with a record of a disability may be adversely evaluated. Two experiments demonstrate that subtle knowledge of a prior disability creates a bias that can be removed by a structured interview. A job candidate was labeled as having once suffered from depression, substance abuse, cancer, or no disability. The candidate who once suffered from depression or substance abuse was judged more negatively than a control candidate, while a cancer survivor was not. Though disabilities are not perceived equally, benchmarked rating scales can enhance attention to relevant behaviors, thus controlling the potential for bias.We thank Steven Gregson, Michael Records and Cynthia Strickland for their help with pilot studies. Shawn Bocketti is now with IBM, Stephen Maser is with Linkage Incorporated, and Craig Wennet is with the United States Coast Guard.     

APPLICANT REACTIONS TO THE INITIAL EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW: EXPLORING THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Prior studies of the simultaneous effects of recruiting practices and job attributes on applicant reactions to the initial employment interview offered consistent support for a job attributes effect, but limited support for a recruiting practices effect. The present study, using a preinterview-postinterview design, found that recruiting practices significantly affected all measures of student applicants' reactions to campus interviews. Recruiters had a greater effect on perceptions of the job itself than on perceptions of other job attributes. However, likelihood of job acceptance–the applicant reaction that was conceptually closest to job choice–was still mostly unaffected by recruiting practices. Further research examining the effect of recruiting practices on applicant responses throughout the recruitment process is recommended.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF APPLICANTS’QUESTIONS AND EMPLOYMENT SCREENING INTERVIEW OUTCOMES

In order to explore empirically the nature of applicants' questioning behavior in screening interviews, videotapes of actual screening interviews (n = 48) at a university placement center were transcribed and interviewees' questions were coded with respect to question placement, question purpose, and question structure. Results suggest that applicants ask about one-third of their questions before their interviewers ask for inquiries, and ask more seeking “new information” questions (primarily focusing on job/organizational topics) than “clarifying” or eliciting “opinion” questions. Further, analyses indicate that the great majority of applicants' questions are closed (versus open), singular (versus multiple) inform, typically are not phrased in the first person (but rather in the second person case) and are about nine words in length. Findings also suggest that “successful” applicants (those receiving second interview offers) as compared to “unsuccessful” applicants (no second interview offer) tend to ask fewer seeking “new information-miscellaneous topics” questions, fewer seeking “new information-interview process” questions, and to some extent fewer questions that could potentially be phrased in the first person case.     

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERVIEWER RATINGS: THE IMPACT OF STANDARDIZATION, CONSENSUS DISCUSSION, AND SAMPLING ERROR ON THE VALIDITY OF A STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

This research investigated empirical issues regarding the validity of individual interviewers'( N = 62) ratings collected after a structured interview. Each interviewer rated an average of 25 interviewees. One hypothesis examined but not supported was that systematic interviewer errors will attenuate interview validity when data are aggregated across interviewers. Also investigated was the validity of ratings averaged across interviewers compared to consensus ratings; consensus ratings were shown to have significantly but probably not practically higher validities. Third, a meta-analysis of individual interviewer validities revealed that all of the variance in validities could be attributed to sampling error. Results and implications are discussed.     

PREFERENCE FOR MOTIVATOR AND HYGIENE FACTORS IN A HYPOTHETICAL INTERVIEW SITUATION: FURTHER FINDINGS AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

Managers, supervisory personnel, clerical workers, and high school students were administered questionnaires which asked them to indicate whether or not they would discuss various work-related factors if they were applicants in an employment interview situation. A systematic tendency was found for respondents to prefer to discuss "motivators" as opposed to "hygiene factors" as characteristics they would seek in a new job, or as reasons for dissatisfaction with a previous one. Responding to a modified version of the questionnaire, twenty professional employment interviewers indicated that it is in fact wise to emphasize motivators and deemphasize hygiene factors if the applicant's intent is to maximize the likelihood of being offered a job.     

PSYCHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOCIAL REACTIONS QUESTIONNAIRE

Negative social reactions are common responses to disclosures of sexual assault. A study was undertaken to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of a new measure of social reactions to sexual assault victims, the Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ). Good reliability and validity were demonstrated for the measure in three samples of sexual assault victims: community volunteers, college students, and victims contacting mental health agencies. The SRQ provides a much needed measure of both the positive forms of social support and several negative social reactions received by sexual assault victims disclosing their assaults to a range of informal social network members and formal support providers.     

RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF VERBAL, ARTICULATIVE, AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION TO EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS IN THE JOB INTERVIEW SETTING

Recruiter ratings of 338 on-campus interviews were used in a discriminant analysis procedure to determine the relative importance of the verbal, articulative, and nonverbal dimensions of communication during the job interview. Correlation of seven variables with the discriminant function indicated that appropriateness of content, fluency of speech, and composure were of greatest importance in contributing to a favorable employment decision. These findings were contrary to the recent literature which has emphasized the importance of nonverbal behavior. Implications for job-interview skills training are discussed, and suggestions for a comprehensive workshop model are presented.