Abstract:

Structural Interview has become one of the most widely used methods in personnel selection. Several theories, such as Social Interaction Theory, Dramaturgy Theory, Behavioral Consistency Paradigm, and Trait Activation Theory, have been trying to explain the behaviors and response of interviewers and applicants in structural interviews. An integral structural interview can be divided into three phases: rapport-building, questioning / responding, and rating of applicants by interviewers. During the interview, interviewers would experience a series of mental activities, including observing, acquiring, analyzing and responding to applicants′ performance, forming the initial impression, then completing rating by referring to rating standard. The major factors that may influence an interviewer′s judgment involve two types of factors, the first type is internal ones, including designing factors and interviewer factors; the second type is external ones, including applicants′ factors and environmental factors. The future breakthrough in this field of research should include the exploration of psychological mechanism of interviewer′s rating combined with the applicants′ reactions in the interviews.

Key words: structural interview, rating, interviewer, personnel selection