the question. To avoid this it is better to ask several separate questions and to give the inter-
viewee a chance to answer each one in turn.
Multiple choice questions offer the interviewee a choice of answers. For instance, ‘Did you
decide to apply for this job because you want a career in local government ...?’ The choice
of answers given by the interviewee may not include the answer that he/she wants to give,
but he or she may feel pressurised to choose one of the answers suggested.
Self-assessment questions are questions in which the interviewee is asked to ‘sell’ him or
herself to the interviewer. Examples of this sort of question would be ‘Tell me why you’re
the best person for this job ...’, or ‘What makes you think that you can do this job ...’ An in-
terviewee may answer this kind of question poorly but he/she may in fact have all the skills
and abilities necessary to do the job. It is up to the interviewer to assess the interviewee’s
suitability for the job. One cannot rely on the interviewee to do this for him/her.
Hypothetical questions are the ones that pose imaginary situations for the interviewee, and
then the interviewer asks the interviewee questions about the imaginary situation; for exam-
ple, ‘Imagine that you have a very angry caller on the telephone, what you would do ...?’
Hypothetical questions rely on the interviewee’s ability to imagine the situation, and then to
imagine how he or she would react in that situation.More reliable information can be gained from questions about actions that the inter-
viewee actually took in situations that the interviewee has actually experienced.
Using the Star Model to conduct interview
One of the interview techniques is by using the STAR model. S - Situation, T - Task, A
- Action and R - Result. Under this model, only specific questions are asked so as to
enable or lead the assessor to understand the past behaviour of the candidate and which
can assist in predicting the candidate’s future behaviour. Theoretical questions such as
‘What would you do or what will you do ...?’ are avoided under the STAR model, so as
to enable the assessors to get the right candidate. This is because candidates with good
speaking skills, those who use polished language and are convincing may not necessar-
ily be the right candidates.
Therefore:
S - SITUATION: What was the situation one faced in the past? One has to precisely
analyse the situation.
T - TASK: What was his/her task/job? What were you supposed or expected to do?
A - ACTION: What did you do?
R - RESULT: What was expected of you? What was the result?
Making decision
We have seen that it is desirable to use a scoring scheme at both the short listing and the
final selection stages. This leads to the question, ‘What should the status of the scores
be?’ ‘Are they an aid to selection, or are they the selection in themselves?’ Some litera-
ture overwhelmingly indicates that the latter alternative is the most preferable. For most
selectors, it goes against the grain to make an appointment in this mechanical way, but
to allow selectors the discretion to override scores simply gives them scope to make
arbitrary appointments based on bias. The human resource practitioner should use his or
her influence to encourage other selectors to take their scores seriously.