Storytelling in the selection interview: Antecedents, process and outcomes
| Responsable du projet | Adrian Bangerter |
| Collaborateur | Christina Gyoerkoes |
| Résumé |
Personnel selection research has advanced understanding of the
psychometric properties of selection methods. Recently, efforts
have focused on the practical use of methods, for example how
applicants respond to the selection situation. However, properties
in use are not equally well understood for all selection methods.
The structured selection interview is one such case. Little is
known about applicants’ actual responses to structured interview
questions. This lack of knowledge contrasts with the spread of
structured interviewing in practice. An important innovation of
structured interviewing is question type. Structured interviews
feature past behavior questions, where applicants are asked to
narrate a critical job-relevant situation they experienced in the
past. Past behavior questions amount to asking applicants to tell
stories about what they did that work situation. However, there is
little scientific evidence that applicants are able to effectively
tell stories on demand. To correct this state of affairs and
advance understanding of the selection interview's practical
properties, we propose to study the antecedents, processes and
outcomes of storytelling behavior in the selection interview.
Antecedents of storytelling include personality, biographical,
cognitive or situational variables that affect the likelihood that
applicants will construe interview questions as an invitation to
tell a story. Storytelling processes include the responsiveness of
the narrator (applicant), the participation of the interviewer, and
the end product, i.e., the resulting narrative. Storytelling
outcomes that will be assessed include the evaluation of the
narrative and, via the narrative, the degree to which the applicant
is perceived to possess job-relevant competencies, measured by
ratings of external observers. The project involves three studies.
Study 1 is a field study of storytelling in real job interviews.
Study 2 is an experiment where experienced and inexperienced
applicants participate in a mock job interview, either with or
without preparation for behavioral questions. Study 3 is a similar
experiment where applicant experience will be manipulated, along
with prompting on the part of the interviewer. In all studies,
social interaction will be video- or audiotaped, transcribed, and
analyzed in detail. The planned research will deliver detailed
quantitative and qualitative findings on the antecedents, process
and outcomes of storytelling in selection interviews. Beyond the
anticipated findings, a database of transcripts of applicant
responses will be created. The project will allow the doctoral
student to complete her PhD. The data will yield several conference
presentations and empirical publications for submission to
peer-reviewed journals. The study will deliver insights that can be
translated into practice via guidelines for recruiters about how to
conduct behavioural interviews or guidelines for training
applicants in how to answer behavioral questions. |
| Mots-clés |
storytelling, conversation, selection interview, personnel selection, social interaction |
| Type de projet | Recherche fondamentale |
| Domaine de recherche | Psychologie |
| Source de financement | FNS - Encouragement de projets (Div. I-III) |
| Etat | Terminé |
| Début de projet | 1-12-2014 |
| Fin du projet | 30-11-2017 |
| Budget alloué | 194'576.00 |
| Contact | Adrian Bangerter |