Using Structured Employment Interviews to Predict Task and Contextual Performance

by Bonness, Brian M

This study investigated the extent to which structured interviews predict task and contextual performance dimensions. Participants recruited from undergraduate business courses at a mid-sized, Midwestern university participated in a structured interview and received performance assessments from three separate rating sources (self-assessment, performance assessment exercise, peer/supervisor assessors). Study results showed that the contextual performance dimensions of the interview significantly predicted contextual performance ratings provided in peer/supervisor assessor questionnaires and predicted these ratings above and beyond the prediction of the task dimension of the interview. Conversely, the task dimension of the interview did not predict task performance in any of the performance rating sources. Further, a paper-and-pencil measure of conscientiousness was found to be a good predictor of contextual performance ratings across the three performance rating sources. The contextual performance dimension of the interview, however, predicted a significant amount of variance in contextual performance ratings in the assessor questionnaires above and beyond the conscientiousness measure. Finally, both task and contextual dimensions of the interview predicted overall performance in the assessor questionnaires while the contextual dimension predicted overall performance above and beyond the prediction of the task dimension. Various exploratory analyses were also conducted and evaluated. The implications of the study results along with various limitations are discussed. Bonness, Brian, 2007, UMSL, p. 3