The Employment Interview: A Review of Recent Research and Recommendations for Future Research

The past decade has seen continued interest in the employment interview, with several changes in research emphasis. The present review is a comprehensive examination of interview research conducted since Harris last reviewed this literature. We begin with a review of the traditional areas of interview research: reliability, validity, structured interviews, interviewer differences, equal employment opportunity issues, impression management, and decision-making processes. Next, we review and discuss more recent developments in interview research such as the use of the interview as a means of assessing person–organization (P–O) fit and applicant reactions to the employment interview. Throughout the review, suggested topics for future research are discussed.     

The impact of attractiveness on employability: Gender differences in peer effects

In this study, we examine if there are peer effects on the influence of external appearance on employability. We presented participants with a series of male and female photos and asked them to rate the attractiveness, employability, and other characteristics of the people portrayed. Candidates who were rated as more attractive were also deemed more likely to be invited for an interview. However, male candidates were judged relatively such that a candidate's chance of being interviewed decreased when his image was presented with that of other handsome men. This relative effect was not found to be significant for women.     

Potential Discrimination in Structured Employment Interviews

This experimental study examines the effects of bias toward persons with disabilities (PWDs) upon the employment interview decision process. The design and operationalization of the study permitted examination of the effects of specific disabilities, interview performance, and the resulting interaction between disability and interview performance, using 630 undergraduate students at a major university in the southwestern United States as subjects. The results indicate that (1) interview performance has a favorable, significant main effect upon subsequent HRM decisions, (2) specific disabilities, that is, child care demands, HIV-positive status, and being wheelchair-bound, have unfavorable, significant main effects upon subsequent HRM decisions, and (3) the presence of any of the disabilities decreased the favorable impact of superior interview performance. The limitations of the structured interview to mitigate bias were demonstrated. Given the pervasive, unfavorable treatment directed toward PWDs, it appears that the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (1993) is warranted. The public policy implications of these results and recommendations for future research were discussed.     

PROCEDURAL RATIONALITY IN THE STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING PROCESS*

Despite the central place of rationality in the organization theory, strategic management, and decision-making literatures, we know relatively little about why some strategic decision-making procedures are more rational than others. This question was addressed in a study of 57 strategic decisions in 24 companies, using a multiple-informant, structured interview protocol. Results indicate that environmental competitive threat, perceived external control of the organization, and the uncertainty of the strategic issues being addressed are related to procedural rationality. Surprisingly, some of these relationships were in the opposite direction from our predictions. These results are interpreted within a framework that emphasizes the link between procedural rationality and managerial discretion.     

基于大学生求职行为特征的企业招聘策略

对天津市高校毕业生的调查表明,大学生的求职行为具有时间集中、渠道趋同、求职准备形式化、求职意向不明确、简历投寄随意、信息提供有所虚假、履约率较低、短期离职率较高等特点。为此,企业在以应届大学毕业生为对象的招聘活动中需采用适当的策略,如选择便于学生应聘的招聘时间和招聘渠道,在招聘信息中详细介绍和企业情况,选择结构化的简历筛选方式和行为描述式的面试方法,通过适当扩大录用比例和入职引导等方式降低违约风险和短期离职率。     

The relative importance of facial attractiveness and gender in Hong Kong selection decisions

This field experiment found that Hong Kong human resources management specialists were influenced by the attractiveness bias in evaluating short-listed candidates for an entry-level trainee position. Zero order, stepwise and hierarchical regressions showed that perceived attractiveness of the candidates was more related to their work experience and work-related skills than to grade-point average and public examination results. Women candidates were generally preferred over male candidates. Further research is suggested to determine if the influence of attractiveness extends over a wider range of jobs and to measure more precisely the influence of attractiveness in different cultures and for men and women.     

如何提高高校毕业生的就业面试成功率

近年来,高校毕业生就业难的问题日益严重,高校毕业生要想成功就业,面试环节至关重要。本文通过分析高校毕业生在面试过程中存在的问题,提出相应的策略,并系统性的归纳高校毕业生的面试准备,旨在提高高校毕业生的就业面试成功率。     

Knowledge acquisition using psychotherapy technique for critical factors influencing construction project layout planning

The positioning of equipment on a construction site may change in different construction phases, different environments, and different types of end products, which greatly influence the decision of the site planning engineer who seeks to maximize the construction efficiency by minimizing the friction from the site layout. This study aims to acquire and analyze site planning experts' knowledge on critical factors influencing the construction layout planning using a psychotherapy technique. Through an open‐structured interview survey and cluster analysis, 125 core factors influencing the site layout plan were analyzed and categorized into a database.     

Can group identity explain the gender gap in the recruitment process?

Despite evidence that the gender gap in the labour market favours men, aggregate findings from correspondence studies show that women are more likely than men to be invited for a job interview. We hypothesize that the predominance of women among recruiters may explain this somewhat puzzling finding; recruiters may favour applicants of their own gender. We use the data from a large-scale correspondence study to test this hypothesis. As expected, we find that female applicants are more likely to receive callbacks for interview. We also see that in our sample the majority of contact persons responsible for the recruitment process are female. More importantly, we find that if recruiter and applicant are of the same gender, then the likelihood that the applicant will be invited for an interview increases. These findings reveal the gender favouritism at the selection stage in the labour market.     

Endogenous party structure

This paper proposes a model of two-party representative democracy on a single-dimensional political space, in which voters choose their parties in order to influence the parties’ choices of representative. After two candidates are selected as the median of each party’s support group, Nature determines the candidates’ relative likability (valence). Based on the candidates’ political positions and relative likability, voters vote for the preferable candidate without being tied to their party’s choice. We show that (1) there exists a nontrivial equilibrium under natural conditions, and (2) the equilibrium party border and the ex ante probabilities of the two-party candidates winning are sensitive to the distribution of voters. In particular, we show that if a party has a more concentrated subgroup, then the party tends to alienate its centrally located voters, and the party’s probability of winning the final election is reduced. Even if voter distribution is symmetric, an extremist party (from either side) can emerge as voters become more politically divided.     

Evidence of ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labor market using experimental data

We present evidence of ethnic discrimination in the recruitment process by sending fictitious applications to real job openings. Applications with identical skills were randomly assigned Middle Eastern- or Swedish-sounding names and applications with a Swedish name receive fifty percent more callbacks for an interview.We extend previous analyses by adding register and interview information on firms/recruiters to the experimental data. We find that male recruiters and workplaces with fewer than twenty employees less often call applications with a Middle Eastern name for an interview.     

Targeted campaign competition,loyal voters,and supermajorities

We consider campaign competition in which candidates compete for votes among a continuum of voters by engaging in persuasive efforts that are targetable. Each individual voter is persuaded by campaign effort and votes for the candidate who targets more persuasive effort to this voter. Each candidate chooses a level of total campaign effort and allocates his effort among the set of voters. We completely characterize equilibrium for the majoritarian objective game and compare that to the vote-share maximizing game. If the candidates are symmetric ex ante, both types of electoral competition dissipate the rents from office in expectation. However, the equilibria arising under the two electoral objectives qualitatively differ. In majoritarian elections, candidates randomize over their level of total campaign effort, which provides support for the puzzling phenomenon of the emergence of supermajorities in majoritarian systems. Vote-share maximization leads to an equilibrium in which both candidates make deterministic budget choices and reach a precise fifty–fifty split of vote shares. We also study how asymmetry between the candidates affects the equilibrium. If some share of the voters is loyal to one of the candidates, then both candidates expend the same expected efforts in equilibrium, but the advantaged candidate wins with higher probability for majoritarian voting or a higher share of voters for vote-share maximization.     

综合评分模式下的竞争性项目投标报价博弈分析

为提高施工企业在激烈竞争情况下的投标中标率并最大程度保证项目利润空间,本文构建一种基于博弈分析的投标报价模型。在资料充足并了解对手的情况下,利用本文构建的投标报价模型进行报价便可极大的提高中标几率并尽可能保证项目利润空间。     

The convergence of monetary policy between candidate countries and the European Union

We compare the convergence with German monetary policy of the transition-economy candidates for EU membership, of non-transition candidates, and of countries that have recently joined the EU. Significant linkages exist between German base money stock and that of recent members of the EU; the same holds true for non-transition-economy candidates. Among the transition economies, the ability to follow the policies of the Bundesbank is weaker or non-existent. Such weak policy coordination suggests the need for strengthening the financial sectors of these countries and for a period in which they tie their policies more closely to the ECB.     

Economics of evaluation (with special reference to promotion and tenure committees)

Previous research suggests that universities that fear tenuring bad candidates more than they fear rejecting good candidates would optimally have both department and outside evaluating committees. I find that a higher relative cost of accepting bad candidates is neither necessary nor sufficient for the optimality of more than one committee. Also, with some probability, t, the administration will tenure one with split recommendations from two committees, if one committee is more accurate than the other, one structure will have fewer errors of both types for some range of t, and possibly a lower expected loss from errors for all t.     

The influence of cross-cultural differences on job interview selection decisions

How the interview process affects foreign-born job candidates has received scant attention in recent research literature (Huffcutt 2011 Huffcutt, A.I. (2011), ‘An Empirical Review of the Employment Interview Construct Literature,’ International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 19, 62–81.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), even though the issue should be growing in importance given the massive influx of qualified migrants entering developed countries. This paper examines the job interview through the lens of national culture and argues that cross-cultural differences between interviewer and interviewee can affect interview judgement and evaluation. Drawing upon the literatures in cross-cultural research and social psychology, this paper presents a model of cross-cultural differences on interview outcomes. In so doing, this conceptual study advances theory that underpins the employment selection process of foreign-born job candidates, and also provides a platform on which future empirical research may be based.     

Racial Discrimination In Speculative Application: Evidence From the Uk's Top 100 Firms

Mike Noon, who is Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Cardiff Business School, examines the responses of the UK's top 100 firms when faced with speculative enquiries from two bogus ‘candidates’ belonging to different ethnic groups. He finds that, although both candidates were likely to reveive a reply, the ‘white’ candidate tended to receive a better quality reply; candidates were more likely to be treated the same by companies with statements of equal opportunity, but when discrimination occurred it also tended to favour the white candidate. His conclusions suggest what might be done to bridge the gap between policy and practice.     

Breaking through the glass ceiling. Simulating policies to close the gender gap in the Italian academia

As gender discrimination in academia is still far from being resolved, the recent debate focuses on the policies that can be adopted to increase gender balance in university systems. We construct a virtual academia—scaling down Italian academia in 2019—and simulate the evolution of its gender composition using an agent-based model that considers the complex nature of gender discrimination. Our findings show that, despite the rhetoric of meritocracy, a one-hundred-year period would not be enough to close the gender gap, even assuming that female researchers have the same scientific productivity as their male colleagues. To achieve more gender equality, universities should implement a set of policies that includes maternity bonuses in the evaluation of the CVs of female candidates for promotion, rules for a more gender balanced composition of the committees evaluating candidates for promotion, and gender quotas in promotions to full professorships. The gender gap in the Italian academia will close only when all these policies are introduced simultaneously.     

Motivational phases associated with the foreign placement of managerial candidates: an application of the Rubicon model of action phases

This study describes an initial attempt to apply Heckhausen's Rubicon model of action phases to the decision-making process involved in a professional stay abroad. The datas stem from the longitudinal study Selection and Socialization of Managerial Candidates, which provides for the standardized questioning of examinees at the university faculties of economics, the natural sciences and engineering in Munich, Berlin and the Ruhr area. A sample of 453 managerial candidates, employed in German companies, was analysed in this study. The following conclusions for organizations can be drawn from the results of our study: the candidates' values and previous experiences abroad can furnish decisive criteria. Information offered in the job interview can further encourage already motivated persons. The lesser emphasis put on the value 'leadership' and the great importance ascribed to the value 'technological progress' could indicate training needs. Intercultural as well as special management trainings within the organization seem appropriate here.     

Maximizing political vote in multiple districts

This paper models a resource allocation problem in the political context. Voters and political candidates of two parties are positioned in each of n given electoral districts. We assume that each voter will vote for the candidate he is more attracted to. This attraction is modeled by an attraction function. Each of the parties now attempts to allocate a finite budget to maximize their objective, which is either the popular vote or the number of districts, in which the party has a majority. Individual scenarios are examined with respect to leader-follower solutions and Nash equilibria. The paper then describes a dynamic model that successively allocates existing funds plus additional donations to candidates in different electoral districts.