OLS-34200 Interview Strat Orgn - Midterm
Cause-to-effect sequence
A cause-to-effect sequence explores causes and effects, but not necessarily in that order. For instance, if it is known that a school bus went off the road and rolled two times before landing on its side, you might focus on possible causes of the accident (driver error, driver distraction, mechanical failure, slippery roadway). If the cause(s) of the school bus accident are known, you might focus on the effects of the accident on the student occupants (death and injuries) and then on the bus (collapse of the top, broken windows, seats coming loose).
Clearinghouse Probe
A clearinghouse probe discovers whether a series of questions has uncovered everything of importance on a topic or issue. It encourages respondents to volunteer information you might not think to ask for and to fill in gaps your questions did not elicit. It literally clears out an area or topic, such as the following: • What have I not asked that you believe is important in this case? • Is there anything else you would like to tell me? A clearinghouse probing question enables you to proceed to the next primary question or to closing the interview confident you have gotten all relevant and important information. It is virtually impossible to anticipate everything an interviewee might be willing or able to reveal.
Nonscheduled Interview
A nonscheduled interview is merely an interview guide. If an interview will be brief such as determining date, time, and place of a meeting or a few biographical details, you might conduct the interview from a guide. A nonscheduled interview conducted from an interview guide gives maximum freedom to probe into answers and adapt to the interviewee and situation as the interview progresses. It requires considerable skill, however, because there are no prepared questions and it may be difficult to maintain control during a freewheeling interaction.
Problem-Solution Sequence
A problem-solution sequence consists of a problem phase and a solution phase. For instance, if you are concerned about reports that canine flu has appeared in your area, you might interview a veterinarian about the threat this flu might pose for your 10-week-old puppy and how you can avoid this danger.
Reflective vs Restatement Probe
A reflective probe differs from a restatement probe in that the first seeks to clarify or verify an answer while the second seeks to obtain more information following a primary question.
Disadvantages of Open Questions
A single answer may consume a significant portion of interview time. On the one hand, respondents may give unimportant or irrelevant information, and on the other may withhold important information they feel is irrelevant or too obvious, sensitive, or dangerous. Keep respondents on track and maintain control by tactfully intervening to move on.
Control
A situation may alter a relationship. Your relationships may be intimate (close friends), casual (co-workers), functional (physicians), formal (supervisors), and distant (elected officials). They may change during immediate interactions and over time. What might begin as a functional relationship with an attorney or teacher may evolve into a close personal relationship lasting for decades because each interaction affects how you communicate who you are and what you are for each other. Your relationships change as interview situations vary and change. For instance, you may have a formal relationship with a professor in the classroom setting, a functional relationship when the professor is counseling you in an office setting, a casual relationship at a picnic for majors, and an intimate relationship years after you have completed your degree.
Space Sequence
A space sequence arranges topics according to spatial divisions: left to right, top to bottom, north to south, or neighborhood to neighborhood. For instance, when interviewing a person about a house on Ocean Isle Beach for a family gathering, you might begin with the number and arrangement of bedrooms, and then proceed to the kitchen facilities, dining areas, recreational rooms, swimming pool size and area, and end with the beach.
Time Sequence
A time sequence treats topics or parts of topics in chronological order. For instance, in an interview with a fire inspector about a recent fire in a residence hall on campus, start with when the fire was detected, and then proceed to when the first crews arrived at the hall, when they started attacking the fire, when they had it under control, and when they left the scene.
Topical Sequence
A topical sequence follows natural divisions of a topic or issue. For example, if you are planning to interview an attorney about law schools you might attend, your guide would include such topics as ranking among law schools, areas of specialization, quality of the law school review, number and type of law firms that come to campus for interviews, and cost. The traditional journalist's guide consisting of six key words—who, what, when, where, how, and why—is useful in many interview settings.
Advantages of Open Questions
Advantages of Open Questions Open questions show interest and trust in the respondent's ability to disclose important information and are easier to answer. They encourage respondents to talk and to determine the type and amount of information to disclose. The lengthy answers open questions generate, reveal what respondents think is important and encourage them to provide details and descriptions you might not think to ask for. Such answers are likely to disclose knowledge level, uncertainty, intensity of feelings, perceptions, and biases.
Two-Way Video Technology
Advocates claim that two-way video interaction is a "virtual interview" because it is almost "like being there in person."Some people find it difficult to interact freely and effectively with people on screens. With fewer interruptions and the absence of traditional cues that signal when a question has been answered or a point made, turns between parties tend to be longer and fewer in video interviews. Example: Skype Both parties must focus attention on the interaction.
Territoriality
All of us are territorial animals to varying degrees. Proximity of interview parties affects your comfort level. You may feel uncomfortable with persons who insist on talking nose-to-nose, and react by backing up, placing furniture between you, or terminating the interview. Trenholm and Jensen write about "territorial markers" and use the term "personal space""imaginary bubble" around us that we consider to be "almost as private as the body itself." Age, gender, and culture may determine space preferences. People of the same age stand or sit closer together than those of mixed ages, particularly when the age difference is significant. All-male parties tend to arrange themselves farther apart than allfemale or mixed-gender parties.
Directive or Nondirective?
Although choice of an interviewing approach may be influenced by organizational, societal, or cultural norms and expectations, be flexible in how you employ each approach and consider a combination. For instance, recruiters often start interviews with a nondirective approach to relax the applicant and get the person talking, then switch to a more directive approach when asking questions and giving information, and return to a nondirective approach when answering the applicant's questions.
Interview Guide
An interview guide is a carefully structured outline of relevant topics and subtopics to be addressed in the interview. An interview guide contains topics, not questions.
Interview
An interview, then, is an interactional communication process between two parties, at least one of whom has a predetermined and serious purpose, that involves the asking and answering of questions.
Restatement Probe
An interviewee may not answer a question as asked. Restate tactfully all or part of the original question, perhaps with vocal emphasis to focus attention on important words. 1. Interviewer: Why are you interested in pursuing graduate work at the University of Illinois? 2. Interviewee: I want to do graduate work at a major research institution where I can teach while doing research. 3. Interviewer: I see. And why at the University of Illinois? When an Interviewee seems hesitant to answer, your question may be unclear or difficult to answer. Restate the question in a clearer, easier to answer wording. 1. Interviewer: You have received several teaching awards, what is your philosophy of teaching? 2. Interviewee: I'm not sure I have a teaching philosophy. 3. Interviewer: What do you believe are the essentials of effective teaching? If a question has more than two parts or options, an interviewee may answer only one part or select only one option. Restate the part or option left unanswered. 1. Interviewer: When you heard the tornado approaching, what were your first thoughts and actions? 2. Interviewee: My first thought was that it sounded exactly like a freight train approaching, and it took a few seconds to realize that it was a tornado. 3. Interviewer: And what were your first actions?
Disadvantages of Closed Questions
Answers to closed questions often contain too little information, requiring you to ask several questions when one open question would do the job. They do not reveal why a person has a particular attitude, the person's degree of feeling or commitment, or why this person typically makes choices. Interviewers talk more than interviewees when asking closed questions, so less information is exchanged. Interviewees have no opportunity to volunteer or explain information, and they can select an answer or say yes or no without knowing anything about a topic.
Reflective Probe
Ask a reflective probing question when it appears necessary to clarify or verify an answer to be certain you have received it as intended. Avoid any wording or nonverbal signals interviewees might interpret as an attempt to lead or trap them into giving a desired answer. • Those were the gross incomes from last year? • By former President Bush, you are referring to President George W. Bush? • Are you implying that immigrant workers are not taxpayers? • You seem to be saying that you will not go pro after this year?
Essential Characteristics of Interviews - Questions
Asking and answering questions play critical roles in all interviews.They are literally the tools of the trade interview parties use to check the accuracy of messages sent and received, verify impressions and assumptions, and provoke feelings and thoughts.
Nonverbal Interactions
Because the parties in interviews are in such close proximity, they are likely to take note of what the other does and does not do: movement, eye contact, facial expression, touch, glance, change in voice. Any behavioral act may send a message intentionally or unintentionally, correctly or incorrectly. Physical appearance and dress reveal how you view yourself, the other party, this situation, and the importance of the interview. Both are particularly important in initiating zero-history relationships and the first minutes of interviews. You tend to respond more favorably toward attractive and well-dressed people and perceive them to be poised, outgoing, interesting, and sociable.
Bipolar Questions
Closed questions are bipolar when they limit respondents to two polar choices, sometimes polar opposites. • Did you attend the in-service workshop in the morning or afternoon? • Do you usually take U.S. 31 or I-65? • Are you a conservative or a liberal? Some bipolar questions ask for an evaluation or attitude. • Do you approve or disapprove of changing time zones? • Do you like or dislike dark chocolate? • Are you for or against the state mandated testing of elementary school children? The most common bipolar question asks for a yes or a no response. • Have you received a flu shot? • Are you going to the state conference? • Do you have a top secret clearance?
Closed Questions
Closed questions are narrowly focused and restrict the interviewee's freedom to determine the amount and kind of information to provide.
Advantages of Closed Questions
Closed questions enable you to control the length of answers and guide respondents to specific information. They require little effort from either party and allow you to ask more questions, in more areas, in less time. Brief answers are easy to record and tabulate.
Open or Closed Questions
Combination is the best.
Timing
Each of us have optimum times for interactions. Take into account events before and after interviews. Selecting the best time for an interview is tricky because each party may have an ideal time of day for communicating openly and effectively. Some of us are morning people and are ready to go before many people awaken; some of us are afternoon people and work best after lunch; and some of us are evening people and communicate effectively well into the night when most people have gone to bed. ETC.
Feedback
Feedback is immediate and pervasive in interviews, and is essential when verifying what is being communicated and how. Feedback is both verbal (questions and answers, arguments and counterarguments, agreements and disagreements, challenges and compliances) and nonverbal (facial expressions, gestures, raised eyebrows, eye contact, vocal utterances, and posture). You can detect critical feedback and assess how an interview is progressing by observing and listening to what is and is not taking place or being said.
Highly Closed Questions
Highly closed questions are very restrictive, often asking respondents for a single piece of information. • When were you in Haiti? • What is the interest rate on your student loan? • Where were you born?
Highly Open Questions
Highly open questions place virtually no restrictions on the interviewee. Examples: • Tell me about Prague. • What do you remember about the tornado hitting your school on that April afternoon? • Describe the Australian Outback for me.
Listening for Resolution
I.E, dialogic The intent of dialogic listening is to solve problems. Dialogic listening focuses on ours rather than mine or yours and believes the agenda for solving a problem or task supersedes the individual.30 Dialogic listening is most appropriate in problem-solving interviews in which the goal is the joint resolution of a problem or task. When listening for resolution, encourage interaction, trust the other party to make significant contributions, paraphrase and add to the other party's responses and ideas while focusing on the present, and center your attention on the communication that is taking place.
Silent Probe
If an answer is incomplete or the respondent seems hesitant to continue, use a silent probe with appropriate nonverbal signals such as eye contact, a head nod, or a gesture to encourage the person to continue.
Directive Approach
In a directive approach, the interviewer establishes the purpose of the interview and controls the pacing, climate, and formality of the interview. Questions are likely to be closed with brief, direct answers. An interviewee may assume occasional control during the interview, but the interviewer tends to dominate the process. Typical directive interviews are information giving, surveys and opinion polls, employee recruiting, and persuasive interviews such as sales. The directive approach is easy to learn, takes less time, enables you to maintain control, and is easy to replicate.
Nondirective approach
In a nondirective approach, the interviewee has significant control over subject matter, length of answers, interview climate, and formality. Questions are open-ended to give the interviewee maximum freedom to respond. Typical nondirective interviews are journalistic, oral history, investigations, counseling, and performance review. The nondirective approach allows for greater flexibility and adaptability, encourages probing questions, and invites the interviewee to volunteer information.
Persuasion Interview
In a persuasive interview, one party attempts to alter or reinforce the thinking, feeling, or acting of another party. The sales interview comes immediately to mind, but we are involved in persuasive interviews on a daily basis. They range from informal interactions such as one friend attempting to persuade another to go on a Caribbean cruise to a team from a construction management firm trying to persuade a university board of trustees to select its firm to manage the construction of a multimillion-dollar classroom and office complex. Persuasion is more than selling a product or service.
Essential Characteristics of Interviews - Two Parties
In each case, there are two distinct parties—an interviewer party and an interviewee party. If a single party is involved (three students reviewing for a political science exam) or more than two parties are involved (four construction management firms bidding for a construction project), the interaction is not an interview.
Traditional Forms of Interviewing
Information-Giving Interviews Information-Gathering Interviews Focus Group Interviews Selection Interviews Performance Review Counseling Interviews Persuasive Interviews Telephone Interviews Two-Way Video Interview Email Interviews Webinars
Informational Probes
Informational probing questions ask for additional information or explanation. If an answer is superficial, ask a question such as: • How exactly was the contract worded? • Tell me more about your relationship with the sheriff. If an answer is vague or ambiguous, ask a question such as: • You write that you went to a small college. How many students were enrolled at that time? • You say you were upset with the judge's decision. How upset were you? If an answer suggests a feeling or attitude, ask a question such as: • Do I detect a note of anger in your answer? • You appear to be confused by the zoning board's rejection of your request.
Chapter One Summary
Interviewing is an interactional communication process between two parties, at least one of whom has a predetermined and serious purpose, that involves the asking and answering of questions. This definition encompasses a wide variety of interview settings that require training, preparation, interpersonal skills, flexibility, and a willingness to face risks involved in intimate, person-to-person interactions. The increasing flexibility of technology is resulting in significant numbers of interviews no longer occurring face-to-face, and this is posing new challenges and concerns. Interviewing is a learned skill, and your first hurdle into becoming a more skilled interviewer or interviewee is to overcome the assumption that what you do often you do well. Ten years of interviewing experience may mean that you have repeated the same mistakes over and over, year after year. Skilled interview participants are aware that practice makes perfect only if you know what you are practicing. The first step in developing and improving interviewing skills is to understand the deceptively complex interviewing process and its many interacting variables.
It is a convenient and inexpensive means of sending and receiving messages. The question persists as to when sending and receiving "electronic mail" becomes an interview and not what its name clearly implies, mail. An interview is interactive in real time. If two parties are sitting at their keyboards at the same time and asking and answering questions without breaks in the interaction, including probing immediately into answers or altering questions to make them clearer or more effective, an interview is taking place. Otherwise, it is merely an electronic questionnaire. The Internet lacks the nonverbal cues critical in interviews.
Level 1 Interactions
Level 1 interactions are safe and nonthreatening. You may portray interaction levels as metaphorical doors with the Level 1 door being slightly open. Questions, for instance, generate brief, socially acceptable, comfortable responses such as yes or no, simple facts, and ambiguous words and phrases such as "Okay," Pretty good," "Not bad," and "Can't complain." Either party may close the door quickly and safely when necessary.
Level of Interactions
Level 1 interactions are safe and superficial. Level 2 interactions require trust and risk taking. Level 3 interactions involve full disclosure.
Level 2 Interactions
Level 2 interactions are half-safe and half-revealing. Parties delve more deeply into personal and controversial topics and probe into beliefs, attitudes, and positions on issues. The metaphorical door is half-open (the optimist's view) or half-closed (the pessimist's view) as parties reveal feelings, opinions, and potentially harmful information. They are more willing to take risks but want an opportunity to close the door when necessary.
Level 3 Interaction
Level 3 interactions are risk-taking with full disclosure in personal and controversial topics that reveal feelings, beliefs, and attitudes. The metaphorical door is wide open with little opportunity to retreat from or dodge negative reactions.
Moderately Closed Questions
Moderately closed questions ask for specific, limited pieces of information, such as: • What are your favorite classes? • Which North Carolina beaches have you visited? • At what times of the year do you prefer to travel?
Moderately Open Questions
Moderately open questions are more restrictive but give respondents considerable latitude in answers. Examples: • Tell me about your study abroad experience in Prague. • What were you thinking as the ceiling of the hallway began to rain down on you? • Describe the Australian Outback at dusk.
Neutral Question
Neutral questions enable respondents to decide upon answers without direction or pressure from questioners. For example, in an open, neutral question, the interviewee determines the length, details, and nature of the answer. In a closed, neutral question, the interviewee may choose between equal choices. All questions discussed and illustrated so far have been neutral questions.
Essential Characteristics of Interviews - Purpose and Structure
One or both parties must arrive at an interview with a predetermined and serious purpose, a component that distinguishes the interview from social and unplanned conversation. The predetermined purpose—to get or give information, to seek employment or recruit an employee, to counsel or be counseled, to persuade or be persuaded—will determine the nature of the planning and structure of the interview.
Open Questions
Open questions vary in degree of openness in which respondents have considerable freedom to determine the amount and kind of information to give.
Outside Forces
Outside forces determine roles in many interviews. Outside forces such as those identified in Figure 2.8 may suggest or dictate who takes part, when, and where; attitudes assumed; topics covered; structure followed; questions asked; and answers given. Organizational policies, union contracts, pressures of a political campaign, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws, and competitors influence perceptions, levels of exchanges, self-disclosure, and interviewing approach.
Perceptions
Perceptions are critical in moving beyond Level 1 interactions. The arrows that extend from the parties to the situational circle indicate that each may perceive an interview situation similarly or differently. For example, a recruiter and applicant may see the purpose, need, and timing of an employment interview similarly. However, the recruiter may see the interaction as a routine event, while the applicant may see the interaction as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Each may have very different goals, a physician to complete a routine examination efficiently and effectively and the patient to get good news and escape.
Verbal Interactions
Perhaps the greatest single problem with human communication is the assumption of it. Words rarely have single meanings. Words are rarely neutral. Slang comes and goes and often determines who's in and who's out. Naming is an effort to alter social reality. (I.e, We name or label people, places, things, and ideas to reveal how we see reality. A recession becomes a downturn; we purchase a lite beer rather than a diet beer; and we order a quarter-pounder rather than a four-ouncer. We have finally begun to substitute woman for girl, firefighter for fireman, and police officer for policeman)
Primary Question
Primary questions introduce topics or new areas within a topic and can stand alone even when taken out of context. • How did you prepare for the Bar exam? • Tell me about your experiences when hiking the Appalachian Trail. • Which U.S. President of the last century do you admire most?
Probing Questions
Questions that dig deeper into answers that may be incomplete, superficial, suggestive, vague, irrelevant, or inaccurate
Mirror Probe vs Reflective
Reflective questions verify and clarify. Mirror questions summarize to ensure accuracy.
Can leading questions be useful?
Regardless of their potential problems in interviews, leading questions are useful and often necessary question tools. Recruiters use them to see how applicants respond under stress. Sales representatives use leading questions to persuade customers to make decisions. Police officers ask leading and sometimes loaded questions to provoke suspects into revealing information and truths. Journalists ask leading questions to prod reluctant interviewees into responding. A counselor may use a loaded question such as "When was the last time you were drunk" to show that a range of answers is acceptable and none will shock the interviewer.
Global Relationships and Gender Relationships
Relationships develop differently in different cultures. Gender differences have evolved but not disappeared. A single party cannot make an interview a success but can ensure its failure.
Seating
Seating may equalize control and enhance the interview climate.
Culture and Gender Differences in Perceptions of Self
Self-identity and self-esteem are central in American and Western cultures that emphasize the individual. They are not central in Eastern cultures and South American countries. Japanese, Chinese, and Indians, for example, are collectivist rather than individualist cultures and are more concerned with the image, esteem, and achievement of the group. Gender matters in self-identity because "gender roles are socially constructed ideas about how women and men should think and behave." We expect men to be more assertive, in charge, and self-sufficient and women to be "feminine," submissive, etc.
Mirror Probe
Summarizes a series of exchanges, not just the immediate response, to ensure understanding and retention of information, instructions, elements of a proposal, prescribed regimens, and procedures. The purpose is to avoid problems in interviews caused by memory, assumptions, and interpretations. For instance, you might use a mirror question when interviewing a tour agency about a Caribbean cruise: 1. Interviewer: Okay, as I understand it, we would stop in the Bahamas, Aruba in the Dutch Antilles, and Costa Rica, and go through the Panama Canal. 2. Interviewee: That's correct except that your ship would only go through the lock at Cristobal and into Gatun Lake. If you want to go all the way through the canal to the Pacific Ocean, you would need to make arrangements on an optional excursion.
Location and Setting
Surroundings help create a productive climate. Control noise to focus attention on the interaction. First of all, whose turf is best for an interview. For instance, you may feel more comfortable and less threatened in your home, room, office, business, or in a neutral place such as a lounge area or restaurant. You protect your turf. Think of your reactions when you walked into your room or office and found another person in your chair or at your desk.Objects and decorations may create an appropriate atmosphere and interview climate.Noise in an interview is anything that interferes with the communication process, including background noise, doors opening and closing, music, others talking, objects being dropped, and traffic. The interview may be interrupted by a cell phone or a text message.
The Curious Question
The curious question pitfall occurs when you ask for information you do not need. For example, are you merely curious about a person's age, marital status, income level, or religious beliefs that have nothing to do with the interview and its stated purpose. The interviewee has the right to say this information is none of your business or to ask the purpose of the question. If a question may appear to be irrelevant, explain why this information is relevant and necessary.
The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Question
The don't ask, don't tell pitfall occurs when you delve into information and emotions that interviewees may be incapable of addressing because of social, psychological, or situational constraints. For instance, we learn at an early age that it is more socially acceptable to be humble rather than boastful. So when we are asked to assess our beauty, intelligence, creativity, or bravery, we are most likely to pose an "Aw shucks" attitude or make a joke of our answer.
The Double-Barreled Question
The double-barreled question pitfall occurs when you ask a question with two parts or topics such as, "Tell me about your trips to Rome and Venice" or "Which colleges do you support financially and why did you choose these?" Respondents may address each part superficially rather than give a long answer, answer only the part they can recall, or answer the part they want to answer.
Focus Group Interviews
The focus group interview usually consists of six to ten similar but unrelated interviewees with a single interviewer and concentrates on a specific issue or concern such as customer or client perspectives about a new or developing idea, product, or service. The interviewer guides the interview with a carefully crafted set of questions designed to generate interactions among the interviewees that produce a wide range of information, experiences, opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and understandings.
The Guessing Question
The guessing question pitfall occurs when you try to guess information instead of asking for it. A string of guessing questions may fail to accomplish what a single open-ended or informational question can. For instance, instead of asking "Were you in your car when you saw the accident?" ask "Where were you when you saw the accident?" Instead of asking "Did you attempt to apply CPR?" ask "What did you do?"
Listening for Empathy
The intent of emphatic listening is to understand the other party. When listening for empathy, communicate genuine concern, understanding, and involvement. Empathic listening reassures, comforts, expresses warmth, and shows regard. It is the ability to place your self in another's situation. When listening with empathy, show interest and concern nonverbally, by not interrupting, and by being nonjudgmental. Reply with tact and understanding and provide options and guidelines.
Listening for Evaluation
The intent of evaluative listening is to judge content and actions. When listening for evaluation (critical listening), you judge what you hear and observe. You are ready to judge when you comprehend the verbal and nonverbal interactions. Openly expressing criticism may diminish cooperation and level of disclosure. Use evaluative listening only after listening carefully to content and observing nonverbal cues. Ask questions for clarifications of exchanges and validations of your interpretations. Do not become defensive when an interview party reacts critically to your criticisms.
Listening for Comprehension
The intent of listening for comprehension is to understand content. When listening for comprehension, you are striving to receive, understand, and remember an interchange as accurately and completely as possible, not to judge. This approach is essential when giving and getting information and during the first minutes of interviews when determining how to react. When listening for comprehension, listen carefully and patiently to each question and answer. Listen to content and ideas as well as tone of voice and vocal emphasis for subtle meanings. Ask questions to clarify and verify.
Leading Question
The leading question may intentionally or unintentionally suggest the answer the interviewer expects or prefers, so the interviewee gives this answer because it is "easier or more tempting" to give that answer.3 This is called interviewer bias and may occur because of the way a question is phrased, how a question is asked nonverbally, the interviewee's desire to please a person of authority, or a conspicuous symbol the interviewer is wearing such as a cross or star of David, a political button, or a police uniform.
The Unintentional Leading Question
The leading question pitfall occurs when you unintentionally ask a question phrased to influence an answer instead of a neutral question. You may be unaware that you did this verbally or nonverbally or that interviewees gave answers they thought you wanted to hear. Avoid this pitfall by phrasing and asking questions nonverbally that are clearly neutral. Listen carefully to every question and ask yourself "How would I reply to this question?"
Loaded Question
The loaded question is an extreme form of leading question that virtually dictates a desired answer. The use of extreme language is a common way to load a question. This includes name-calling, emotionally charged words, expletives, and unequal options that may lead an interviewee to choose the least onerous choice. Entrapment is another way to load a question. An interviewer may ask a no-win question such as the iconic "Are you still beating your wife" question.
Selection Interviews
The most common selection interview occurs between a recruiter attempting to select the best qualified applicant for a position in an organization and an applicant attempting to attain this position. The placement interview occurs when a supervisor is trying to determine the ideal placement of a staff member already in the organization. This interview may involve a promotion, a restructuring of an organization, or a reassignment. Selection is critical in the lives of people and organizations.
Verbal and Nonverbal Intertwined
The nonverbal often complements the verbal when you call attention to important words or phrases through vocal emphasis (like underlining, italicizing, or highlighting in print). You complement words with tone of voice, speaking rate, facial expression, and eye contact.
The Open-Closed Question
The open-to-closed pitfall occurs when you ask an open question and then switch it to a closed question, often bipolar, before the interviewee can reply. For instance, you may ask "Tell me about your trip to New York," and then interject "Did you visit the 9/11 memorial?" The interviewee is most likely to limit the answer to the memorial, and you lose a significant amount of important information.
Telephone Interview
The popularity of telephone interviews is easy to understand. They save time, reduce monetary expenses, and eliminate the necessity of sending one or more interviewers to widespread geographical locations. The telephone is most effective in interviews in which you want to ask brief and simple questions in a short time ranging from 10 to 15 minutes. A major drawback of the telephone interview is the lack of physical presence of the parties. Hearing a voice is not the same as observing another's appearance, dress, manner, eye contact, face, gestures, and posture. Missing from telephone interviews are the subtle cues interviewers use to indicate that it's time to switch roles, to continue or end an answer, or that the interview is nearing the closing. The telephone interview is convenient and inexpensive.
The Tell Me Everything Question
The tell me everything question is the opposite of the intentional bipolar question and the yes (no) question. This pitfall occurs when you ask an extremely open-ended question with no limits or guidelines. When you ask a question such as "Tell me about yourself"
The Too High or Too Low Question
The too high or too low pitfall occurs when you fail to prepare questions that take into consideration the interviewee's levels of knowledge and expertise. Questions above these levels may cause embarrassment or resentment for appearing uninformed, illinformed, uneducated, or unintelligent. Questions below these levels may be insulting. Know whether a respondent is a layperson, novice, or expert on a topic or issue and phrase your questions accordingly.
Perceptions of Others
The way you perceive the other party may influence how you approach an interview and how you interact as it progresses. For example, you may be in awe of the other's reputation and accomplishments. The other party may differ from you in size, physical attractiveness, age, gender, race, or ethnic group. Previous encounters may lead you to look forward to or dread an interview. If you keep an open mind and are adaptable, differences may become assets rather than liabilities.
The Yes (No) Question
The yes (no) question pitfall occurs when you ask a question that has only one obvious or acceptable answer, either a yes or a no. For instance, a physician trying to persuade a patient to stop smoking might ask, "Do you want to die?" Or a counselor might ask a student, "Do you want to graduate?"
Trust
Trust is critical in interviews because outcomes affect parties personally—their income, their careers, their purchases, their profits, their health, and their futures. Trust comes from mutual honesty, sincerity, reliability, fairness, and even-temper—in other words when you see interactions with one another as being safe.
The Essential Characteristics of Interviews
Twos Parties Purpose and Structure Parties exchange and share Questions play multiple roles in interviews
Common Question Pitfalls
Unintentional Bipolar Question problem The Yes (No) Question The Tell Me Everything Question The Open-Closed Question The Double-Barreled Question The Unintentional Leading Question The guessing Question The curious question The too high or too low question The Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Nudging Probe
Use a nudging probe when a silent probe fails or words seem necessary to get what is needed. It nudges the interviewee to reply or to continue, and is simple and brief. Examples: Go on I see And?
Inclusion
Wanting to take part leads to collaboration. Interview parties enhance relationships when both are motivated to speak and listen, question and respond, and are open and straightforward. The more you are involved and share in an interview, the more satisfied you will be with the interactions and outcome. It is not merely what you do or gain in an interview but what you do with another. It should be a collaborative, joint effort. Both parties depend on one another for the success of each interview.
Affection
We interact more freely with persons we like.
Webinars
Webinars in which a presenter lectures or speaks to an audience on the Web are becoming popular for conferences, training sessions, seminars, and workshops. They are typically not interviews but electronic presentations. If a webinar is more collaborative and interactive between two parties with questions and answers in real time and perhaps over a telephone line or voice over technology, it may be an interview and more spontaneous and interpersonal than an e-mail interview. Webinars are rarely interviews.
Counseling
When an interviewee has a personal or professional problem, the parties take part in a counseling interview in which the interviewer strives to help the interviewee attain insights into a problem and possible ways of dealing with this problem.
Performance Review
When two parties focus on the interviewee's skills, performance, abilities, or behavior, it is a performance review (what once was called an appraisal interview). The purpose is to coach a student, employee, or team member to continue that which is good and to set goals for future performance. Performance review is essential to employee and employer.
Information-Giving Interviews
When two parties take part in orienting, training, coaching, instructing, and briefing sessions, they are involved in information-giving interviews, the purpose of which is to exchange information as accurately, effectively, and efficiently as possible. Information giving is common but difficult.
Information-Gathering Interview
When two parties take part in surveys, exit interviews, research sessions, investigations, diagnostic sessions, journalistic interviews, and brief requests for information, the interviewer's purpose is to gather accurate, insightful, and useful information through the skillful use of questions, many created and phrased prior to the interview and others created on the spot to probe into interviewee responses, attitudes, and feelings. Information gathering is pervasive in our world.
Initiating the Interview
Who initiates an interview and how it may affect control, roles, and atmosphere.
Developing an Interview Guide
With your purpose firmly in mind, start creating an interview guide by determining the major topics you want to cover in the interview. Example: I. Top programs abroad in international business A. Vienna B. Prague C. Berlin D. Paris II. Cultures A. Language B. History C. Historical sites D. Arts and music Interviews may include more than one sequence or none at all.
Nonverbal in gender, culture, and global
Women are more skilled at and rely more on nonverbal communication than men. Facial expressions, pauses, and bodily gestures are more important in women's interactions than men's. There are significant differences, however. In the United States, African-Americans maintain eye contact more when speaking than when listening. They give more nonverbal feedback when listening than EuropeanAmericans. In general, African-Americans are more animated and personal, while European-Americans are more subdued. They avoid eye contact with superiors out of respect, a trait often misinterpreted by European-Americans who see lack of eye contact as a sign of disinterest, lack of confidence, or dishonesty. And African-Americans tend to touch more and stand closer together when communicating than do European-Americans. Americans are taught to look others in the eye when speaking, while Africans are taught to avoid eye contact when listening to others. An honest "look me in the eye" for a Westerner may express a lack of respect to an Asian. An American widens his or her eyes to show wonder or surprise, while the Chinese do so to express anger, the French to express disbelief, and Hispanics to show lack of understanding.
Self-disclosure
You must strive to move beyond Level 1 to Level 2 to Level 3 to obtain information, detect feelings, discover insights, and attain commitments. This requires maximum self-disclosure, and is often not easy to do. Unlike being a member of a group or audience into which you can blend or hide, the interview places your social, professional, financial, psychological, or physical welfare on the line. Interviews deal with your behavior, your performance, your reputation, your decisions, your weaknesses, your feelings, your money, or your future. Women are more freely to disclose than men Culture may dictate what we disclose and to whom.
Similarity
You tend to find it easier to interact with others and form relationships when you share gender, race, cultural norms and values, education, experiences, beliefs, interests, and expectations. Important similarities enable you to understand and communicate with one another and thus to establish common ground
Relational Dimensions
Your relationships are multidimensional, with five being critical to interviews: similarity, inclusion, affection, control, and trust.
Perceptions of Self
Your self-concept or self-identity is a mental portrait of how you interpret and believe others interpret what and who you have been, are at the moment, and will be in the future. What we perceive ourselves to be may be more important than what we are.
Unintentional Bipolar Question Problem
arises when you unintentionally ask a bipolar question when you want a lengthy answer or when there are more than two choices
Politeness Theory
theory that people have positive perceptions of others who treat them politely and respectfully Positive face is the desire to be appreciated and approved, to be liked and honored, and positive politeness is designed to meet these desires. Showing concern, complimenting, and using respectful forms of address are examples. Negative face is the desire to be free from imposition or intrusion, and negative politeness is designed to protect the other person when negative face needs are threatened. Acknowledging the imposition when making a request is a common example
