Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

52 CYNTHIA KAY STEVENS
her as an individual. He may or may not cover information about his company that would
be of interest to her. A smarter strategy would be to ask her questions about why she was
exploring a career in insurance sales, what she is looking for in a job or company, and what
other jobs and organizations she has considered. Not only would this approach be more
efficient in assessing her interest and communicating the information of greatest value to her,
it would also convey interest in and concern for her as an individual. This interviewer might
also spend some time talking about the less attractive aspects of being in insurance sales as a
way to make the rest of the information he provides appear more balanced and credible.
A good way to approach this issue is provided in a fi nal example, which is too lengthy to
reprint fully here. The opening was for a human resources internship rotation program in a
large conglomerate, and the interviewer determined through the r é sum é and some preliminary
questions that the applicant had excellent qualifications. She then shifted the focus of
their discussion to the factors that would be important in the applicant ’s decision, and discovered
that his wife was applying to medical schools across the country. This enabled the
interviewer to pinpoint several divisions to which he could be assigned that were located
near his wife ’ s preferred medical schools. Note that, had she relied on a prepared speech
about the company ’s programs and benefits, she would have neglected to provide this critical
information about how her company could meet this applicant ’ s needs.
CONCLUSION
Interviews are typically used as one in a set of selection/recruitment tools to make
decisions about whom to hire and which job offers to accept. Because they are fl exible,
interviews can be used to accomplish multiple purposes, such as introductions,
recruitment, screening out unsuitable candidates, and so on. However, this fl exibility
can also be a stumbling block, as research shows that decision processes are susceptible
to many cognitive, motivational, and contextual influences that may degrade
the quality of the fi nal decision.
Increasing interview structure can help managers achieve their recruitment or
selection goals by helping to minimize the impact of irrelevant factors on interviewers
’ and applicants ’ decision processes. Structuring interviews introduces some
standardization in procedures to make the judgments that follow less idiosyncratic.
Wisely structuring interviews to balance the need for standardization with the need
for interviewer and applicant discretion can ensure that both organizations and
applicants get the most out of the process.
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