The Interactive Influence of Ambition and Sociability on Performance in a Behavior Description Interview

The purpose of this study was to present and empirically test the potential influence on ratings in a behavior description interview (BDI) of the personality traits ambition and sociability, two facets of extraversion. Results suggest a relatively strong role for ambition in the administration and outcomes of BDIs in organizational selection, particularly when its interaction with sociability is taken into consideration. In a sample of 85 participants working in entry-level positions, the correlation with BDI ratings was .22 for ambition alone, which increased to .44 when sociability and its interaction with ambition were added. Adding sociability by itself to ambition without the interaction term resulted in a minimal increase in predictability of BDI ratings. Implications of these results include the possibility of a general BDI performance factor, one that may tend to capture maximal (rather than typical) behavior

Functional forms of competence: Interviewing

Citation: Huffcutt, A. I., Culbertson, S. S., & Riforgiate, S. E. (2015). Functional forms of competence: Interviewing. In A. F. Hannawa & B. H. Spitzberg (Eds.), Communication Competence (Vol. 24) (pp. 431-448). Boston: De Gruyer Mouton.Employment interviews are ubiquitous in the workplace, providing a necessary step in the hiring process and influencing organizational composition and applicant employment. Research pertaining to professional interviewing is frequently conducted outside of the communication discipline, yet the nature of the interview interaction is highly communicative. The purpose of this chapter is to develop a solid foundation for understanding communication in employment interviews by utilizing the concept of communication competence as a theoretical basis. Specifically, we address aspects of communication effectiveness and appropriateness in employment interviews, including how they vary according to the degree of their standardization. For instance, both parties (interviewer and interviewee) have the goal of reducing uncertainty, although the nature of those goals differ (e.g., organizational perspectives regarding potential interviewee performance verses interviewee perceptions of job fit and the likelihood of being offered the job). Directions for future research are presented, including a pressing need for research examining how the two parties adjust communication during the interaction based on perceptions of the other’s communication behaviors

Potential Applications of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to Organizational Research: A Primer and Sample Study

The first purpose of this manuscript is to provide a primer for organizational researchers on both fMRI and brain physiology because few are likely to have encountered an in-depth treatment of either previously. The second purpose is to present the results of an actual fMRI study on an organizational topic (structured employment interviews) as a sample to help illustrate the potential of this type of research. Results of the sample study enhanced understanding of the brain processes behind responding to situational (SI) and behavior description (BDI) interviews, and offered several promising directions for follow-up research. To illustrate the latter, there appears to be separate region of the brain for handling complex social situations, which was activated only in the SI scans. This region could help explain the common use of the impression management tactic ingratiation in SIs. Given the emerging trend for larger universities to acquire fMRI equipment for research purposes, this type of research may be more viable then ever for organizational researchers

Identification and Meta-analytic Assessment of Psychological Constructs Measured in Employment Interviews

There has been a growing interest in understanding what constructs are assessed in the employment interview and the properties of those assessments. To address these issues, the authors developed a comprehensive taxonomy of 7 types of constructs that the interview could assess. Analysis of 338 ratings from 47 actual interview studies indicated that basic personality and applied social skills were the most frequently rated constructs in this taxonomy, followed by mental capability and job knowledge and skills. Further analysis suggested that high-and low-structure interviews tend to focus on different constructs. Taking both frequency and validity results into consideration, the findings suggest that at least part of the reason why structured interviews tend to have higher validity is because they focus more on constructs that have a stronger relationship with job performance. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed

Are Ethical Codes of Conduct Toothless Tigers for Dealing with Employment Discrimination?

personnel selection, employment discrimination, codes of conduct, code enforcement,