The interview is a commonly used data collection method for hiring employees to interrogate witnesses. We have faced interviews all the time. But can you define and understand its meaning? And can we even tell which types of interviews we faced?
Learn and understand what an interview is, its objectives, types, advantages, and disadvantages.
Definition of Interview
An interview is an interpersonal communication technique for exchanging ideas between two people. The word “interview” derives from the French word “entrevue” or “entrevior,” which means “to see one another” or “to meet” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).
In English, it means ‘a view between’ or ‘a sight between.’ It suggests that an interview is a meeting between two people for the purpose of getting a view of each other or for getting to know each other.
Gibson and Hanna (1992:170) define “An interview as a face-to-face interpersonal event in which at least one person has planned to achieve a specific goal.” This definition emphasizes that an interview is a specific event. Interviews have a specific purpose. These are usually planned and tend to be structured.
Pearson and Nelson (1997:140) define an interview as “a dyadic communication context with a purpose or goal.” That is, in an interview, two people or parties communicate in a preplanned situation, primarily by asking and answering questions.
The interview context most often, but not always, involves a face-to-face encounter, and it is relational in character because there is personal interaction and an interpersonal connection between the two parties. Scott, Clotheer, and Spriegel said, “An interview is a purposeful exchange of ideas, the answering of questions, and communication between two or more people.”
Steward and Cash (1988:03) define an interview as “a process of dyadic relational communication with a predetermined and serious purpose designed to interchange behavior and involving the asking and answering of questions.”
In its simplest form, Bingham and Moore (1924:03) define an interview as a “conversation with a purpose.” Therefore, an interview is a purposive interpersonal communication between two parties engaged in exchanging ideas through conversation by asking and answering questions.
An interview is a procedure designed to obtain information from a person through oral responses to oral inquiries.
Gary Dessler states, “Interview is a selection procedure designed to predict future job performance based on applicants’ responses to oral inquiries.”
An interview is a face-to-face conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee, where the interviewer seeks replies from the interviewee for choosing a potential employee.
Meaning of Interview
The interview is the most critical component of the entire selection process, designed to decide if an individual should be interviewed further, hired, or eliminated from consideration. It serves as the primary means to collect additional information on an applicant and the basis for assessing an applicant’s job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities.
10 Objectives of the Interview
An interview is a popular communication technique used in every business for various purposes. Every jobholder faces this interview at the entry point of a job. Now, being an executive, you may take interviews with the new job entrants.
An interview is a form of personal communication between two people. It is not a precise activity. It involves a wide variety of issues depending on the purpose and situation of the interview.
Interviews are conducted for many reasons. The following objectives are the main ones:
Getting information
The interviewer gathers facts, opinions, or attitudes from respondents.
Giving information
The interviewer presents facts, opinions, or attitudes to the respondent, often in the form of instructions.
Persuading
The interviewer attempts to influence the respondent’s attitude and, ultimately, their behavior.
Problem-solving
The interviewer and respondent attempt to identify the causes of a problem and seek possible solutions together.
Counseling
The respondent seeks advice from the interviewer on a matter of personal concern.
Job seeking or hiring
The interviewer and respondent exchange information on which to base an employment decision.
Receiving complaints
The interviewer tries to minimize the respondent’s dissatisfaction.
Reviewing performance
The interviewer offers feedback on the respondent’s performance and helps establish specific goals to be met by the next appraisal interview.
Correcting or reprimanding
The interviewer and respondent, usually in the roles of superior and subordinate, meet to discuss the respondent’s need to improve performance. It is most effective when handled informally and with a helpful rather than critical tone.
Measuring stress
The interviewer determines how the respondent acts under pressure. The interviewer gathers information from a respondent who does not wish to divulge it.
21 Types of Interview
Evaluation interviews
From time to time, a supervisor tells an employee about the latter’s performance. They discuss progress towards predetermined standards or goals and evaluate areas that require improvement. Content, critical, and empathic listening skills may all be required in this case.
Unstructured (Non-directive) Interview
In unstructured interviews, there is generally no set format to follow, so that the interview can take various directions. The lack of structure allows the interviewer to ask follow-up questions and pursue points of interest as they develop.
An unstructured interview is an interview where probing, open-ended questions are asked. It involves a procedure where different questions may be asked to different applicants.
Structured (Directive) Interview
In structured interviews, the interviewer lists the questions and acceptable responses in advance and may even rate and score possible answers for appropriateness.
An interview consisting of a series of job-related questions asked consistently of each applicant for a particular job is known as a structured interview.
A structured interview typically contains four types of questions.
- Situational questions: Pose a hypothetical job situation to determine what the applicant would do.
- Job knowledge questions: Probe the applicant’s job-related knowledge.
- Job-sample simulation questions: Involve situations where an applicant may be required to perform a sample task from the job.
- Worker requirements questions: Seek to determine the applicant’s willingness to conform to the job requirements.
Situational Interview
In a situational interview, you ask the candidate what his or her behavior would be in a given situation.
Candidates are interviewed about what actions they would take in various job-related situations. Situational interviews ask interviewees to describe how they would react to a hypothetical situation today or tomorrow.
Behavioral Interview
In a behavioral interview, you ask applicants to describe how they reacted to actual situations in the past.
Candidates are asked what actions they have taken in prior job situations similar to situations they may encounter on the job. The interviewers are then scored using a scoring guide constructed by job experts.
This structured interview uses questions designed to probe the candidate’s past behavior in specific situations.
This technique involves asking all interviewees standardized questions about how they handled past situations similar to situations they may encounter on the job.
The interviewer may also ask discretionary probing questions for details of the situation, the interviewee’s behavior, and the outcome.
The interviewee’s responses are then scored with behaviorally anchored rating scales.
Job Interview
The job seeker wants to learn about the position in the organization, and the employer tries to draw out information about the applicant’s abilities and experience.
Both parties hope to impress each other and establish rapport. Job interviews are usually quite formal and organized. Content and critical listening skills are especially important.
In a job-related interview, the interviewer asks applicants questions about relevant past experiences.
It is a series of job-related questions that focus on relevant past job-related behaviors. The questions here don’t revolve around hypothetical or actual situations scenarios.
Instead, the interviewer asks job-related questions such as, “Which courses did you like best in business school?
Whether you are a job seeker or an independent businessperson, you’ll be involved in a wide range of business interviews. This communication activity relies more on oral communication skills. In a typical interview, the action is dominated by the interviewer
For example, when the managing director calls his or her directors for interviews regarding the state of things in the organization, the former decides what questions to ask each of them for eliciting relevant information.
As the interview progresses, the conversation shifts back and forth from the interviewer to interviewee. Although the interviewer dominates the session, the interviewee may also seek information from the interviewer to accomplish a purpose such as solving a problem, creating goodwill, or persuading the other person to take action.
If the participants establish an understanding and stick to the issue at hand, both parties might have a chance of reaching their goals.
The interviewer establishes the style and structure of the session based on the purpose of the interview and the relationship between the parties, much as one varies strategies in adjusting to changing circumstances.
Stress Interview
In a stress interview, the interviewer seeks to make the applicant uncomfortable with occasionally rude questions.
The aim is supposedly to spot sensitive applicants and those with low or high-stress tolerance.
Stress interviews may help unearth hypersensitive applicants who might overreact to mild criticism with anger and abuse.
It intentionally creates anxiety to determine how an applicant will react to stress on the job.
Panel Interview (Board Interview)
A panel interview, also known as a board interview, is conducted by a team of interviewers who interview each candidate and then combine their ratings into a final score.
Here one candidate is interviewed by several representatives of the firm. This technique entails the job candidate giving oral responses to job-related questions asked by a panel of interviewers.
Check out our articles on how oral communication is effective and where it fails.
Each panel member then rates each interviewee on work history, motivation, creative thinking, and presentation.
The scoring procedure for oral interview boards has typically been subjective; thus, it would be subject to the personal biases of those sitting on the board.
This technique may not be feasible for jobs where many applicants must be interviewed.
One-On-One Interview
In a one-on-one interview, one interviewer meets one candidate. In a typical employment interview, the applicant meets one-on-one with an interviewer.
As the interview may be a highly emotional occasion for the applicant, meeting alone with the interviewer is often less threatening.
Mass Interview (Group Interview)
The mass/group interview is a relatively new technique in the west and is almost unknown. It is a procedure for the discovery of leadership.
Several job applicants are placed in a leaderless discussion, and interviewers sit in the background to observe and evaluate the performance of the candidates.
In a mass/group interview, the panel interviews several candidates simultaneously. The panel poses a problem and then watches to see which candidate takes the lead in formulating an answer.
Phone Interview
Employers do some interviews entirely by These can be more accurate than face-to-face interviews for judging an applicant’s conscientiousness, intelligence, and interpersonal skills.
Neither party needs to worry about appearance or handshakes, so each can focus on substantive answers.
Or perhaps candidates – somewhat surprised by an unexpected call from the recruiter – give more spontaneous answers.
The Employment Interview
It is sometimes called a job search interview and the selection interview. It is an interview in which the participants exchange information to make an employment decision. This type of interview occurs every time a recruiter visits a campus to search for new employees.
The Performance Appraisal Interview
In counseling interviews type of interview, a supervisor and an employee discuss personal problems that are interfering with performance. The interviewer should be concerned with the welfare of both the employee and the organization and should limit the discussion to business.
Critical and empathic listening skills are both important because the employer requires assessing the facts of the situation and handling the human emotions involved.
It is called a counseling interview, and it is a work-related interview in which the supervisor gives the employee feedback about his or her job performance and consults with the employee to establish goals to be met by the employee.
Performance appraisal interviews are also used to encourage and reward employees, discover and solve communication problems with employees, and motivate employees.
Information Interview
The interviewer seeks facts that bear on a decision or contribute to basic understanding. Information flows mainly in one direction: one person puts a series of questions, and the other answers them. Here also, content and critical listening skills dominate the proceedings.
It can work two ways. In one way, the information seeker organizes the interview. In the other way, the information giver organizes the interview.
Examples of information interviews occur almost everywhere in our society. For example, you may answer the telephone one evening and discover that you are involved in a survey. Or you may go to your doctor with a complaint. He or she interviews you to determine what treatment, if any, is appropriate.
You may also be asked to participate in an orientation interview in which someone seeks to impart knowledge about the organization or its rules to you. Journalists conduct information interviews to prepare for the stories they write. Police conduct interviews in the process of investigating crimes.
Persuasive Interview
One person tries to convince another to accept a new idea, product, or service by explaining why the other should act on the recommendations. Thus, persuasive interviews demand skill in drawing out and listening to others, as well as the ability to provide information.
It occurs whenever one person seeks to change the thinking or behavior of another person. The most common persuasive interview is the sales event in which a sales representative explains the features and benefits of a product or service to persuade the listener to make a purchase decision.
Grievance Interview
It occurs in an organization due to the elimination or reduction of possible grievances. Such interviews are initiated by employee discontent. In the academic community, students sometimes request grievance interviews to complain about how they were treated in a classroom or to challenge their course grades.
Exit Interview
These interviews occur when an employee is leaving an organization or transferring to another division or department of the enterprise, and the employer wants to know the reasons. The interviewer tends to ask all the questions while the interviewee provides answers.
The departing employee should be encouraged to focus on events and processes rather than personal grievances. From these interviews, the employer may elicit information about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
It is designed and conducted by managers when valued employees decide to leave their companies.
The goal of an exit interview is to discover the reasons for the employee’s decision to leave and to identify any changes that must be made in the administrative structure or procedures or in the communication climate of the organization.
Some organizations include job placement assistance and counseling in exit interviews.
They use the opportunity of an exit interview to try to cement goodwill for the organization. Because exit interviews are about conditions in the organization, some employees are reluctant to participate in them.
They may be suspicious that anything they say during the interview, especially negative criticism of the organization or its members, may adversely affect any recommendations that the organization might give.
Thus, exit interviews require exceptional skill on the part of the managers that conduct them.
Counseling Interview
This interview is conducted to understand the personal problems that are interfering with work performance and to guide the concerned person with ways and means to overcome the problems.
The interviewer is concerned with the welfare of both the employee and the organization. The goal is to establish the facts, convey the company’s concern, and steer the person toward a source of help.
Conflict Resolution Interview
Two rivaling persons or competing groups of people try to understand the nature of their problems and attitudes.
The goal is to reduce the gap between the two by fixing differences in perception and attitude and creating a more productive environment. In such antagonistic situations, empathic and active listening skills are more serviceable.
This interview is conducted to resolve points of differences between two conflicting parties or groups in the organization. The goal is to bring the two parties closer together, cause adjustments in perceptions and attitudes, and create a more productive climate.
Disciplinary Interview
When employees violate or depart from the organization’s rules and regulations, disciplinary interviews are called by the management.
The interviewer must not only get the employees at fault to realize the necessity of the existing rules and agree to comply but must also try to understand the reasons for the employees’ actions.
Since emotions might be involved in these cases, impartial observations and agreement to comply rather than critical comments are more appropriate here. Active and empathic listening are absolutely necessary in conducting disciplinary interviews.
The interview is conducted to correct the behavior of an employee who has ignored the organization’s rules and regulations. The interviewer tries to get the employee to see the reasons for rules and to agree to comply.
The interviewer also reviews the facts and explores the person’s attitude. Because of the emotional reaction that is likely, neutral observations are more effective than critical comments.
Termination Interview
This interview is conducted to inform an employee of the reasons for the termination.
The interviewer tries to avoid involving the company in legal action and tries to maintain as positive a relationship as possible with the interviewee. To accomplish these goals, the interviewer gives reasons that are specific, accurate, and verifiable.
Advantages of the Interview
There are several merits of the interview for which it is widely used in business and other organizations. This medium of communication offers the following advantages:
- The interview is the only medium to establish a quick rapport with the other party. It provides an opportunity for direct interaction between two persons and fosters quick friendship.
- The interview provides an opportunity to assess the subjective aspects of the interviewee. Facial expressions, appearance, mental strength, communication style, etc., can be evaluated during the interview.
- Interviews help reduce grievances through counseling. Face-to-face conversations convince people more rapidly and offer prompt remedies. Therefore, aggrieved individuals find satisfaction more quickly.
- The interview is the best way to assess the “will do” features of the interviewee, such as motivation, initiative, stability, perseverance, work habits, and judgment.
- Interviews facilitate the development of intimate personal relationships that ensure congenial human relations and mutual understanding. This situation promotes successful communication.
Disadvantages of the Interview
Interviews as a medium of interpersonal communication have some drawbacks. They are as follows:
- Interviews are highly influenced by the emotional content of the people involved. Mood, attitude, perception, preconception, etc., strongly influence interviews. This aspect also affects the communication process and can lead to communication breakdown.
- Interviews may result in shared attitudes and beliefs between the interviewer and the interviewee. This kind of identity goes against the objectivity of the interview.
- Interviews are time-consuming and costly.
- Interviews are subject to the halo effect. This suggests that the interviewer forms an opinion about the interviewee based on any one impressive feature, either positive or negative. This may be appearance, turnout, or style of speaking, and it often goes against the purpose of the interview.
- Interviews are also affected by the stereotyping error. It arises when the interviewer assumes that a person with a certain trait belongs to a particular type of personality. Such beliefs can lead to one-sided understanding and disrupt communication.
How Can Interviews Be Administered? [6 Ways]
Interviews can also be administered in various ways that are discussed below:
Personal Interview
Personal interviews are one-on-one, in which the candidate meets privately with a single interviewer.
Often a well-qualified candidate will pass through a series of such interviews, first with a member of the human resources department, then with the manager in whose unit there is a job opening, and finally, perhaps with the manager’s superior.
The rest of this section focuses primarily on the one-on-one scenario.
Unstructured Sequential Interview
It is an interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion after asking different questions.
Structured Sequential Interview
It is an interview in which each interviewer rates the candidates on a standard evaluation form. The top-level manager then reviews and compares the evaluations before deciding who to hire.
The group interview
Several candidates are interviewed at once.
Generally, they can discuss job-related matters while one or more observers rate their performance.
This type of interview is usually considered most appropriate in selecting managers; it can also be used with groups of current employees to evaluate their potential for supervisory roles.
Panel Interview
One candidate meets with a panel of two or more firm representatives. One panelist may act as a chairperson, but each of the firm’s representatives participates in the questioning and discussion.
This format allows the interviewers to coordinate their efforts and follow up with each other’s questions.
Computer-assisted Interview
The applicant is presented with a series of questions on a video screen to which he/she responds by pressing the appropriate key on a keyboard.
Preliminary experience suggests that the procedure is faster than face-to-face interviews, that applicants are more candid, and overcomes the lack of consistency between interviewers.
This approach cannot assess emotional responses or interpersonal skills. But it has promise as a helpful additional tool in the selection process.
Programming and development costs appear to be the most practical choice when fairly large candidates are interviewed for a given job.
Planning and Structure of the Interview
Planning an interview is like planning other forms of communication. You start by setting forth your purpose, analyzing the interviewee, and formulating your main idea. Then you determine the length, style, and structure of the interview.
When you are the interviewer, it is your responsibility to plan the interview. This means you must arrange the interview and ensure that it proceeds comfortably and conveniently. You also need to prepare a set of appropriate questions and plan their order. This planning would help you conduct the interview efficiently and make occasional departures to gain advantages.
Even if you are the interviewee, you can have some control over the dialogue. You need to use your hunch for the interviewer’s probable questions and then prepare yourself for their answers. You can also introduce questions and topics of your own and influence the relationship between you and the interviewer through your reactions, both verbal and non-verbal.
Different types of questions help elicit different kinds of ideas. They must be ordered in a sequential manner that will enable you to serve your purpose:
- For an informational purpose: Topics need to be organized and presented in a direct order.
- For analytical purposes: Organize to state the problem, look over the background and objectives, propose solutions, weigh up details of each, choose the best option, and decide on implementation strategies.
- For persuasive purposes: Organize based on the other person’s receptivity. Go straight to conclusions or recommendations if the person is receptive. If resistant, use logical persuasion leading to a convincing case for your position.
You need to consider practical circumstances such as the length of the interview and the time needed for eliciting answers from the interviewee. Probably you can handle about 80 questions or so (mixed types) in 30 minutes.
However, it is at your discretion how much time you allow for each question and answer, considering the subject matter and the complexity of the questions, as open-ended questions take more time to answer than other types.
As in a written message, an interview should have a threefold structure: an opening, a body, and a close. The opening should be used to establish an understanding with the interviewee and to set him or her on track for the rest of the session. You could start by introducing yourself,
asking a few friendly questions, and then explaining the purpose and ground rules of the interview.
For an informational session, the body of the interview requires questions that relate to the area on which you’d like to have information.
For example, a market research interview requires detailed specific queries regarding the dynamics and statistics of the market. This approach will help you economize time and control the interview.
Besides, it will enable you to use standard questions for all other interviewees on the subject. In the case of problem exploration interviews or persuasion interviews, you might consider resorting to structured approaches.
A checklist of general subjects would help the interview grow around the participant’s responses. One good technique is to use closed-end questions (that require yes, no, or one-word replies) to specify facts that come out in the course of replies to open-ended questions.
For example, you might follow up by asking, “How many people did you consult before coming to this conclusion?” or “Can we have the supply before August 20th?”
Interview Question Sequences
Successful interview needs well-sequenced questions. When you develop your interview schedule of questions, you must consider not only which types of questions to use but how you want to arrange the questions systematically.
A question sequence links questions into a series to assist the interviewer in reaching the objectives of the interview. Steward and Cash (1994:79-80) suggested the kind of question sequences, which involve;
- tunnel sequence,
- funnel sequence,
- inverted funnel sequence, and
- quintamensional design sequence.
Tunnel Sequence
A tunnel sequence is a series of-either open or closed questions designed to discover attitudes and opinions. A tunnel sequence looks like this:
- Do you like or dislike Pepsi?
- Do you ever drink Coke?
- Do you think Pepsi is better than Coke?
- Would you ever change brands?
- Would you try anew product if samples were provided to you?
Funnel Sequence
A funnel sequence proceeds from open questions to gradually more closed questions. This sequence is used when the interviewer wants to elicit open response to questions and when the respondent is familiar with the topic. It is like below:
- What do you think about our curriculum changes?
- What courses are most like to benefit students?
- Which one is apt to be most useful?
- Why do you think that is so?
- Was our effort worth the outcome?
Inverted Funnel Sequence
The inverted funnel sequence begins with closed questions and gradually moves to open questions. This sequence is especially useful when the interviewer needs to motivate a respondent to participate in the interview. An inverted funnel sequence might be as follows:
- Did you see what happened?
- Who else was there at the time?
- What do you think caused the accident?
- Tell me all that you remember?
- What is you reaction to the way everything was handled?
Quintamensional Design Sequence
The quintamentional design sequence is a five-step question sequence that seeks to discover the intensity of attitudes or opinions. It is structured in the following way:
- Awareness: tell me what you know about railroad relocation?
- Uninfluenced attitude: How do you think it will affect the city?
- Specific attitude: Do you approve or disapprove of the cost of the project?
- Reason: why do you feel that way?
- Intensity of attitude: How strongly do you feel, about this-strongly, very
strongly, or no room for change in attitude?