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Virtually every previous review has concluded that structuring the selection interview improves its psychometric properties. This paper reviews the research literature in order to describe and evaluate the many ways interviews can be structured. Fifteen components of structure are identified that may enhance either the content of the interview or the evaluation process in the interview. Each component is explained in terms of its various operationalizations in the literature. Then, each component is critiqued in terms of its impact on numerous forms of reliability, validity, and user reactions. Finally, recommendations for research and practice are presented. It is concluded that interviews can be easily enhanced by using some of the many possible components of structure, and the improvement of this popular selection procedure should be a high priority for future research and practice.
In the 80-year history of published research on employment interviewing (dating back to Scott, 1915), few conclusions have been more widely supported than the idea that structuring the interview enhances reliability and validity.
Brief Summary of Previous Reviews
All narrative reviews have supported the use of structured interviews (Arvey & J. Campion,1982; Harris,1989; Mayfield,1964; Schmitt,1976; Ulrich & Trumbo, 1965; Wagner, 1949; Wright, 1969). As early as 1949, Wagner stated that all interviews should be conducted according to a Meta-analytic reviews of validity studies have also unanimously supported the superiority of structured interviews. They differed somewhat in the studies they summarized and in the corrections they used for range restriction and unreliability, but their overall findings were very similar. Across studies, corrected validities for unstructured interviews ranged from .14 to .33 and for structured interviews from .35 to .62 (Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994; Hunter & Hunter, 1984; McDaniel, Whetzel, Schmidt, & Maurer, 1994; Wiesner & Cronshaw, 1988; Wright, Lichtenfels, & Pursell, 1989; see also Conway, Jako, & Goodman, 1995; Marchese & Muchinsky, 1993).
Overview of Paper
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature in order to summarize, integrate, and evaluate the many ways interviews can be structured. It complements previous narrative reviews in that it is not an inclusive examination of all research topics since the last review; instead, it focuses only on structure but considers the entire literature. The review by Dipboye and Gaugler (1993) similarly examined structure,...