Personality Judgment and the Utility of the Unstructured Employment Interview

Abstract

This study examined 2 different personnel selection interview techniques-the structured and the unstructured employment interview-to determine which method would lead to the most accurate assessment of the applicant's job-related personality traits. It was hypothesized that the unstructured method would allow for the applicant's personality characteristics to more readily manifest themselves as the applicant's behavior would be less scripted, thus leading to a more accurate personality assessment. Participants in this study conducted mock job interviews using either the structured or the unstructured method, while their behavior was coded by an independent rater. Self-ratings of job-related personality traits from the California Q-set (Bem & Funder, 1978;Block, 1978) were obtained from the applicant, and ratings of the applicant's personality were obtained from the interviewer and a peer of the applicant. Self-interviewer and peer-interviewer agreement correlations were then used as the criteria for accuracy. It was found that the average self-interviewer and peer-interviewer agreement correlation were significantly greater when the interviewer implemented the unstructured interview method, thus supporting the hypothesis. A prominent behavioral difference between the 2 interview formats was found and is discussed as a variable that mediates the effect of interview structure on personality judgment.

Comparing the Psychometric Characteristics of Ratings of Face‐to‐Face and Videotaped Structured Interviews

“…Finally, we wanted to have some way to assess the construct‐related validity of the structured interview ratings. Recent studies (e.g., Barrick, Patton, & Haugland, 2000; Blackman, 2002) have had interviewers provide ratings using standardized questionnaires to assess the construct‐related validity of their interview ratings. Thus, we reviewed several off‐the‐shelf measures and found that three facet scales from the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) most closely reflected the job dimensions the interview was designed to measure.…”

“…Results of recent research comparing FTF interviews with alternative interview modes appear to provide some preliminary support for these theories. For example, studies have found that applicants tend to receive higher ratings in FTF interviews than in telephone interviews (e.g., Blackman, 2002; Silvester, Anderson, Haddleton, Cunningham‐Snell, & Gibb, 2000). In addition, Chapman and Rowe (2001) found that some interviewers who conducted videoconferencing interviews felt they could rate interviewees more objectively than interviewers who conducted FTF interviews.…”

Interviewee Selection Test and Evaluator Assessments of General Mental Ability, Emotional Intelligence and Extraversion: Relationships with Structured Behavioral and Situational Interview Performance

“…Thus, grounded in socioanalytic theory, we suggest that trait visibility in the interview may be of sufficient quantity and quality as to influence interview performance. Huffcutt et al (2011) argue that highly structured interviews are the most appropriate context in which to assess a more complete and accurate effect of interviewee traits (for an opposing view, see Blackman 2002). First, structured interviews developed from job analysis focus the content of the interview on core candidate qualifications, priming interviewees to more readily present job-relevant traits.…”

“…As such, this raises issues with respect to the generalizability of our results across interviews developed for different types of jobs. Further, emerging research (e.g., Van Iddekinge et al 2005;Roth et al 2005) has sought to design interviews specifically to assess personality traits using structured interviews, while other research (Blackman 2002;Blackman and Funder, 2002;Townsend et al 2007) has sought to assess personality traits using unstructured interviews. Future research should investigate the relative value of these divergent approaches.…”

The Impact of Nonverbal Behavior in the Job Interview

“…The author argues that more behavioral information is available in the face-to face interview, which results in higher accuracy judgment. Moreover, personality judgment was more accurate in unstructured compared to structured job interviews (Blackman, 2002b). This relation was mediated by the amount of applicant talking during the job interview.…”