1. SELECTION & ASSESSMENT SESSION FIVE: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SELECTION INTERVIEWS

2. IN THIS SESSION A review of the validity of the selection interview and how it’s affected by interview structure, content and bias A consideration of the social processes in the selection interview, particularly impression management and what distinguishes successful from unsuccessful candidates

3. INTERVIEWS: A REMINDER Used by 99% of organisations Validity coefficients of 0.35 (all types) and 0.51 (structured) Inter-Rater Reliability of 0.77 What interviews measure: Cognitive ability Job knowledge Social skills Person-organisation fit

4. TWO MAIN PERSPECTIVES Objectivist Psychometric Approach – What can interviews measure? – How should they be structured? – Reliability and validity – Experiential and hypothetical interviews Subjectivist Social- Interactionist Approach – Interview process – Patterns of exchange between the two parties – Power dynamics and impression management – Interviewer perceptions and attributions

5. FINDINGS ON STRUCTURE Unstructured selection interviews will merely provide a measure of social skills Structured interviews are a pre-set sequence of questions which are pre-planned and standardised Structured interviews have better validity and are legally safer

6. FINDINGS ON CONTENT Situational and Past Behaviour Interviews Situational interviews ask what you would do, how and why (validity 0.46) Past Behaviour interviews ask what you did, when, how and why (validity 0.57) The past predicts the future, though ignores problems with lying and change

7. SUBJECTIVIST SOCIAL INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE Forum for negotiating psychological contract Even spread of power Preview of ability to work together Not a verbal delivery of test

8. SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES Talk more outside of preset questions Are interrogated and interrupted less Engage in turn taking and reciprocation Engage in impression management Explain past successes and failures differently. Stable, personal and global explanations are far more effective

9. GIVING BETTER INTERVIEWS How would you answer this question? “You’ve been unemployed since graduation: why?”

10. GIVING BETTER INTERVIEWS A good answer I decided to get the best degree I could and left my applications too late (PERSONAL) but that’s me: I always get bound up in what I’m doing (STABLE) but it’s given me time to make the right career choice (GLOBAL)” A bad answer “Our tutors totally overloaded us with work so I didn’t have time to make any applications” (Unstable, impersonal, externalised responsibility)

12. PRACTICAL TASK Your task is to develop a set of interview questions for OPS to use at interview for the job of Senior Business Psychologist Try to devise both situational and actual behaviour questions and use them in a mock interview. If you have time, try to develop some good answers based on attribution theory Competences you are measuring are strong interpersonal skills, strong influencing skills, creativity, effective planning, effective organisational skills, an eye for quality

13. SELECTION & ASSESSMENT SESSION SIX: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF ABILITY TESTS

14. IN THIS SESSION A review of the validity, reliability and scope of tests How to properly interpret what you’ve got Links between cognitive ability and work performance Ways of selecting applicants based on their test scores

15. ABILITY TESTS: A REMINDER Used by 68% of organisations Validity coefficients of 0.51 Do tests measure what they purport to? Can we measure internal processes? Tests developed on students

16. OVERVIEW OF TESTS Achievement Tests Aptitude Tests General Mental Ability Tests Specialised Tests

17. INTERPRETING TEST SCORES Good comparative data Good test-retest reliability Error in measurement Internal reliability

18. LINKS WITH WORK PERFORMANCE Threshold & Linearity Hypotheses A necessary but not sufficient condition Correlations with motivation Moderators between cognitive ability and work performance

19. SELECTION BASED ON TEST SCORES Top Down Top Down Quotas Separate Norms Fixed Bands Sliding Bands

20. TACKLING ABILITY TESTS Hop around and don’t get bogged down The most general alternative often correct The longest alternative often correct The right answer is often the middle number If two similar alternatives choose neither Always, all, never, none often wrong Generally, seldom, perhaps, usually often correct

23. PRACTICAL TASK OPS have decided to use an ability test as part of their selection procedure for the post of Senior Business Psychologist. Have a go at the attached ability test. Try to apply some of the skills of test taking behaviour we have discussed. When you have finished, reflect on and discuss the construct validity of the test you have just completed