Job Interview - Interview Constructs

Interview Constructs

In light of its popularity, a stream of research has attempted to identify the constructs (ideas or concepts) that are measured during the interview to understand why interviews might help us pick the right people for the job. Several reviews of the research on interview constructs revealed that the interview captures a wide variety of applicant attributes. These constructs can be classified into three categories: job-relevant interview content (constructs interview questions are designed to assess), interviewee performance (applicant behaviors unrelated to the applicant characteristics the interview questions are designed to assess but nevertheless influence interviewer evaluations of interviewee responses), and potentially job-irrelevant interviewer biases (personal and demographic characteristics of applicants that may influence interviewer evaluations of interviewee responses in an illegal, discriminatory way).

Job-relevant interview content

Interview questions are generally designed to tap applicant attributes that are specifically relevant to the job for which the person is applying. The job-relevant applicant attributes that the questions purportedly assess are thought to be necessary for one to successfully perform on the job. The job-relevant constructs that have been assessed in the interview can be classified into three categories: general traits, experiential factors, and core job elements. The first category refers to relatively stable applicant traits. The second category refers to job knowledge that the applicant has acquired over time. The third category refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with the job.

General traits:

• Mental ability: Applicants’ capacity to learn and process information
• Personality: Conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, extroversion, openness to new experiences
• Interest, goals, and values: Applicant motives, goals, and person-organization fit

Experiential factors:

• Experience: Job-relevant knowledge derived from prior experience
• Education: Job-relevant knowledge derived from prior education
• Training: Job-relevant knowledge derived from prior training

Core job elements:

• Declarative knowledge: Applicants’ learned knowledge
• Procedural skills and abilities: Applicants’ ability to complete the tasks required to do the job
• Motivation: Applicants’ willingness to exert the effort required to do the job

Interviewee performance

Interviewer evaluations of applicant responses also tend to be colored by how an applicant behaves in the interview. These behaviors may not be directly related to the constructs the interview questions were designed to assess, but can be related to aspects of the job for which they are applying. Applicants without realizing it may engage in a number of behaviors that influence ratings of their performance. The applicant may have acquired these behaviors during training or from previous interview experience. These interviewee performance constructs can also be classified into three categories: social effectiveness skills, interpersonal presentation, and personal/contextual factors.

Social effectiveness skills:

• Impression management: Applicants’ attempt to make sure the interviewer forms a positive impression of them
• Social skills: Applicants’ ability to adapt his/her behavior according to the demands of the situation to positively influence the interviewer
• Self-monitoring: Applicants’ regulation of behaviors to control the image presented to the interviewer
• Relational control: Applicants’ attempt to control the flow of the conversation

Interpersonal Presentation:

• Verbal expression: Pitch, rate, pauses
• Nonverbal behavior: Gaze, smile, hand movement, body orientation

Personal/contextual factors:

• Interview training: Coaching, mock interviews with feedback
• Interview experience: Number of prior interviews
• Interview self-efficacy: Applicants’ perceived ability to do well in the interview
• Interview motivation: Applicants’ motivation to succeed in an interview

Job-irrelevant interviewer biases

The following are personal and demographic characteristics that can potentially influence interviewer evaluations of interviewee responses. These factors are typically not relevant to whether the individual can do the job (that is, not related to job performance), thus, their influence on interview ratings should be minimized or excluded. In fact, there are laws in many countries that prohibit consideration of many of these protected classes of people when making selection decisions. Using structured interviews with multiple interviewers coupled with training may help reduce the effect of the following characteristics on interview ratings. The list of job-irrelevant interviewer biases is presented below.

• Attractiveness: Applicant physical attractiveness can influence interviewer’s evaluation of one’s interview performance
• Race: Whites tend to score higher than Blacks and Hispanics; racial similarity between interviewer and applicant, on the other hand, has not been found to influence interview ratings
• Gender: Females tend to receive slightly higher interview scores than their male counterparts; gender similarity does not seem to influence interview ratings
• Similarities in background and attitudes: Interviewers perceived interpersonal attraction was found to influence interview ratings
• Culture: Applicants with an ethnic name and a foreign accent were viewed less favorably than applicants with just an ethnic name and no accent or an applicant with a traditional name with or without an accent

The extent to which ratings of interviewee performance reflect certain constructs varies widely depending on the level of structure of the interview, the kind of questions asked, interviewer or applicant biases, applicant professional dress or nonverbal behavior, and a host of other factors. For example, some research suggests that applicant’s cognitive ability, education, training, and work experiences may be better captured in unstructured interviews, whereas applicant’s job knowledge, organizational fit, interpersonal skills, and applied knowledge may be better captured in a structured interview.

Further, interviews are typically designed to assess a number of constructs. Given the social nature of the interview, applicant responses to interview questions and interviewer evaluations of those responses are sometimes influenced by constructs beyond those the questions were intended to assess, making it extremely difficult to tease out the specific constructs measured during the interview. Reducing the number of constructs the interview is intended to assess may help mitigate this issue. Moreover, of practical importance is whether the interview is a better measure of some constructs in comparison to paper and pencil tests of the same constructs. Indeed, certain constructs (mental ability and skills, experience) may be better measured with paper and pencil tests than during the interview, whereas personality-related constructs seem to be better measured during the interview in comparison to paper and pencil tests of the same personality constructs. In sum, the following is recommended: Interviews should be developed to assess the job relevant constructs identified in the job analysis.