The Benefit of Structured Interviews

Spence

By Cynthia J. Spence

Management 641: Managing Human Resources

Professor Don Drost

March 15, 2009

The Benefit of Structured Interviews

Introduction

Willi H. Wiener (1988), in his article examining the validity of the employment interview, states “the dynamics underlying the employment interview create as many different interviews as there are numbers of interviewer and interviewee interactions” (276).Inan attempt to eliminate these inconsistencies, researchers have been trying to develop reliable interview techniques that will help standardize the interview process for the business community. Additionally, adding structure to the interview process willassist businesses as they attempt to meet legalrequirements,advance fairness, increaseproductivity, and promote honesty. At present, structured interviews appear tobe the best solution whenaddressing these objectives.

In his article examining the validity of the employment interview, Wiener (1998)suggests that structured interviews may provide more consistent results. Wiener includes research data that suggests the difference in reliability between unstructured and structured interviews has a mean reliability of .21.” (283). Thisposition is also supported by Jean M. Barclay (2001) who states, “Structured interviewing techniques have been reported as more reliable and more valid predictors of likely candidate job success than ‘traditional interviews’” (81). However, Barclay goes on to state that “It is not always clear as to what is meant by a ‘structured’ interview” (82). Derek S. Chapman (2005) also states “we know little about how much structure makes an interview a ‘structured interview’” (676).

Currently, two methods that provide structure to an interview is the practice of asking situational and behavioral questions. Barclay defines situational questions as those which pose “Hypothetical situations that may occur on the job and candidates are asked what they would do” (82). In contrast, Barclay defines behavioral questions as those which “Focus on past behavior by asking candidates to describe what they did in past jobs” (82).Behavioral questions are based on the theory that behavior patterns remain consistent over time. Henryk T. Krajewski (2006) provides a similar definition when he describes situational questions as “on the spot (i.e. what would you do if ‘x’ occurred)” and continues by saying that answering behavioral questions “requires applicants to report about actual past activities (i.e. tell me about a time when you did ‘y’)” (415).

Structured Interviews: Why should they be used?

Legal Reasons

Michael A. Campion (1998) suggests that using structured interview questions, such as situational and behavioral questions, may also help businesses avoid legal problems. By asking all potential candidates the same questions, the interviewer decreases potential contamination of the interview data sometimes produced by irrelevant questions. Additionally, Campion suggests that interviewers should not ask follow-up questions that might also bias the collected information. According to Campion, acceptable interviewer responses to candidate answers would be repeating questions or asking for further explanation. By limiting the questions and responses to only job related data, the validity of the process can be protected and the business can conform to equal employment opportunity standards.

Campion also advises that interviewers keep detailed notes.It is Campion’s position that since these notes are available for examination, the interviewer is more likely to “attend to the candidates’ responses and to organize their thoughts, thus possibly increasing accuracy, recall, and evaluation consistency” (81). Note taking also has the additionally benefit of providing evidence of fairness should a claim ever be made against the interviewer.

Fairness

For job candidates, one possible drawback to being asked behavioral questions is a lack of work experience to draw from. According to Barclay (2001), candidates asked behavioral questions “Need not be restricted to work experience to describe their skills” (83). As an example, Barclay speaks of a woman returning from a “career break” who uses her parenting skills as an example of behavioral experience. Additionally, Barclay suggests that the behavioral method of questioning can also work well for college graduates who are able to draw upon their educational experiences as “work” experience.

Another fairness issue is age, due to the fact that behavioral questions may put younger candidates at a disadvantage because they will have fewerlife experiences and less work experience to draw on for answers. Marguerite P. Joyce (2008) suggests that schools should consider covering situational and behavioral questions when presenting career preparation topics. Joyce also suggests that classroom activities should incorporate current business practices and training interview sessions should be offered in order to provide equal opportunities for young job candidates. Paul J. Taylor (2002) considers this issue in his article on situational and behavioral interview questions. Taylor believes that age in not a disadvantage when these types of questions are applied because under observation interviewees simply “referred to non-work experiences in response to past behavior questions” (279).

According to Barclay, another possible drawback to asking situational and behavioral questions is that some candidates will be expecting the traditional biographical interview questions and might feel somewhat surprised or under-prepared for scenario style questions.To avoid this problem, some organizations offer candidates advanced warning concerning the type of questions to expect.Arla L. Day (2003) puts forward that informing the candidate does not bias the interview process because having prior access to behavioral and situational interview questions does not necessary improve the candidate’s performance since the “answers to the questions are not always apparent to the applicant” (31).

Additionally, Day’s (2003) research suggests that having prior knowledge of the interview questions positively affects the candidate’s “fairness” perception of the process. By conducting an ANOVA, Day discovered that individuals who were given prior knowledge “perceived the interview process as being significantly more fair, overall, than participants who were unaware of the interview questions prior to the interview (M=4.01, SD =.55)” (38). However, in order to maintain fairness, it is essential that all candidates be equally informed.Another important point regarding fairness was made by Campion (1994) who suggests that all candidates be asked the same situational questions during interviews in order to validate the process and offer equal opportunity.

Finally, according to Barclay, behavioral style questions do not take into account that an individual’s past behavior may not always determine their futureactions. Barclay puts forward that some individuals are capable of learning from his or her past mistakes and will change behavior patterns over time.

Productivity

Barclay (2001) states that interviewers can sometimes be resistant to conducting structured interviews due to the fact that they require a good deal of preparation time. According to Barclay,preparing for behavioral interviewsnot only requires a considerable amount of time, they also require “Careful thought about what skills and abilities are required and development of the right questions to use” (86). For employers who have already created a job analysis, this process might be somewhat easier. However, if the interviewer must first define the job skills required, and then create questions to match these skills, and finally determine what answers will be viewed as acceptable, preparation time may be viewed as a significant drawback.

Campion (1994) considers structured interviews as being productive because they operate “like an orally administered cognitive ability test” (998). However, if the interviewer is going to prepare questions, or administer a test, he or she must also define what they consider to be acceptable answers. Barclay (2001) suggests that some organizations deal with this issue by creating explanations of competency definitions. Additionally,Barclay states that other employers use a simple three-category approach for each question such as ‘“fully meets requirement’, ‘partially meets requirement’ or ‘does not meet requirement’” (88). Campion (1998) suggests using “outstanding, average, and poor performance” as guidelines (78). While the process of composing questions and answers may seem time consuming up front, the positive result is a greater probability that the employer will hire the right candidate for the job. In the end, this will save the employer time and money by not having to repeat the hiring process over-and-over again.

Truthfulness

Julia Levashina (2006) suggests that some “people are surprisingly effective at convincingly faking their emotional expressions, attitudes, and even personality characteristics” (299). Levashina refers to this tendency as “impression management.” She goes on to suggest that there are two types of “impression management” individuals: deceptive and honest. According to Levashina, the deceptive “impression management” individual is motivated by their own values and preferences and constructs an identity that fits their own ideal. In contrast, the honest “impression management” individual only desires to please the audience.

Levashina (2006) believes that unstructured interviews provide ample opportunities for the “deceptive” personality to manipulate the interview process. However, since past behavior questions are verifiable, outright dishonesty is less likely. Additionally, Levashina suggests that by “asking several questions about the same topic from different perspectives” the interviewer can check on the stability of the answers (308). Levashina also believes that by asking questions regarding actions occurring in real-life, the deceptive interviewee is less likely to present a fictionalized version of their experiences and abilities.

Barclay (2001) also believes that “Questions based on past behavior are more likely to elicit truthful responses from candidates for two reasons: detail of evidence and verifiability (83). Similarly, Krajewski (2006) states “Although it is possible the PBI may draw on cognitive ability to the extent that respondents judiciously select and embellish their choices of past behaviors, the possibility that these behaviors might potentially be verified is expected to reduce respondents’ efforts to expend cognitive effort in recounting overly flattering accounts of themselves” (415).

Structured Interviews: How should they be implemented?

Multiple Interviewers

According to Wiesner (1988) the reliability of boards is “higher than the reliability of individual interviews” (283). Campion (1998) also states that multiple interviewers validates the interview process “by reducing the effects of idiosyncratic biases, increasing recall of the candidate’s responses, averaging out random errors, and helping interviewers become aware of improper inferences (81). However, if a multi-panel is not available, Campion suggests using the same interviewer for all candidates in order to add some level of structure. However, Campion also cautions that using a single interviewer offers less protection if a complaint is made concerning equal employment opportunities.

Additionally, in her article focusing on “faking” interviews, Levashina suggests that using a single interviewer provides more opportunity for the deliberately deceptive candidate to manipulate the interview process. According to Barclay (2001) behavioral and situational style questions still depend on the technique and skill of the interviewers. Therefore, Barclay suggests that organizations need to provide adequate training ranging from one to three days in order to benefit from this interview approach.

Job Related Questions

According to Barclay (2001) “Both past behavior questions and situational questions require interviewers to have a clear idea of the competencies required for the job and to focus questions on these competences, which improves the likelihood of selecting the right person for the job” (82). This position is supported by Campion (1994) who believes that interview questions should be based on a job analysis and the “same questions should be asked of all candidates” (998). Campion suggests that questions involving “teamwork, resolving conflict, commitment to improvement, work ethic, safety orientation, accepting responsibility, growth orientation, and leadership” are all acceptable because they come from current job descriptions (999).

Campion also suggests that interviewers should take detailed notes. Campion states that note taking places “less emphasis on memory recall and avoids certain possible effects of memory on ratings” (81). Additionally, Campion puts forward that because notes are available for examination, the interviewer is more likely to “attend to the candidates’ responses and to organize their thoughts, thus possibly increasing accuracy, recall, and evaluation consistency” (81).Levashina (2006) also cautions that all ancillary information, such as application forms, resumes, test scores, and transcripts should be withheld until after the interview process in order to eliminate the tendency to ask unstructured biographical questions (309).

Structured Interviews: Behavioral vs. Situational

Day (2003), in her article focused on comparing situational and behavioral style questions, states that although most researches agree that these questions are efficient for predicting job performance, there appears to be a conflict as to which one in particular works best. Day goes on to say human resource processionals believe situational questions “correlate significantly with peer ratings of organizational citizenship behavior” (27). In contrast, Day states that other studies have shown that behavioral questions have higher predictive validity than situational questions. To add to the confusion, Day asserts that “other research has shown that there is no difference between the criterion-related validity of the SI and the PBDI format” (27). Still, Day believes that situational interview questions are better predictors of cognitive ability and also puts forward that some institutions may not want the interview format to be “contaminated with experience” (42).

Barclay (2001) states that one of the advantages of behavioral interviewing is the flexibility the questions offer the interviewee. According to Barclay, thisstyle of questioning “Allows candidates to explain their skills in real events from their own experience rather than having to imagine hypothetical situations which may be outside their experience” (83). Campion (1994) also believes that “past behavior questions” offer additional validity. However, Campion feels that both types of questions have comparable reliabilities and variances. Campion states that “theoretically, this may mean that past behavior is a slightly better predictor of future intentions” (1001). Barclay and Campion’s favorable opinion concerning past behavioral questions is also shared by Paul J. Taylor (2002). Taylor puts forward that “When situational and past behavior question formats were compared, without the confound of use of answer rating scales, past behavior questions demonstrated superior validity for predicting job performance” (286-287).

Structured Interviews: My personal experience

Barclay (2001) mentions that students sometimes feel disadvantaged when asked behavioral questions because they do not have a deep work experience portfolio to draw upon. At times, I have also felt somewhat “lacking” when it comes to actual work experience. Five years ago, I left the workforce to attend school fulltime and felt hesitant to talk about my prior employment because it seemed so out of date. However, when I applied to the Ed.D program I was asked work related behavioral style questions and felt very comfortable drawing upon my experiences as a student when replying.

According to Barclay (2001) research suggests that candidates seem to prefer situational and behavioral style questions because they believe “it allows them to present themselves more favorably than psychometric testing” (86). I have also found this to be true in my own personal experience. When interviewing for a teaching position at Mt. San Jacinto Community College, I was asked several situational questions. A few were: “If you discovered one of your students plagiarized a paper, what would you do?”, “If you graded on a point scale, what would you do if you had a student just one point away from a higher grade?”, and “If we were to hire you, what would your class structure look like?” I was very comfortable with all three questions and felt they were reasonable questions to ask because they dealt with actual teaching experiences.

James M. Conway, suggests that “qualified applicants may refuse job offers” because they were “turned-off” by odd or uncomfortable interview questions. I am not sure how I would reply if an interviewer ever asked “what type of bird would you be?” However, I do know that I would be “turned-off” by such an irrelevant employment question since “birds” do not teach English 101 or Reading 50.

Conclusion

Currently, research in interview strategies does seem to suggest that incorporating situational and behavioral questions during the interview process provides much needed structure. Additionally, structured interviews can protect businesses from equal employment opportunity claims while also ensuring that applicants feel they have been treated fairly. While the initial preparation for situational and behavioral based interviews may take valuable time, the return is seen in hiring the right employee for the job and decreasing the need to hold interviews in the first place by decreasing employee turnover.

References

Barclay, J.M. (2001). Improving selection interviews with structure: Organizations’ use of “behavioral” interviews. Personnel Review, 30 (1), 81-94.