Managerial interviewing: what is it, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages?

What is the managerial interview, in what environments is it used, and when is it advisable to use it?

The managerial interview is a type of interview in which the interviewer takes a leading role, i.e., there is a clear asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer.In other words, there is a clear asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer, with the latter taking the leading role.

Usually, this type of interview is used in the field of personnel selection and psychopathological diagnosis, especially because they are usually very structured and, therefore, more objective. Let's take a closer look at their characteristics.

The directive interview and its characteristics

The managerial interview is a type of interview in which the interviewer takes a very active role during the interview.. That is, it takes center stage during the interview, asking very concise questions and waiting for the interviewee to answer them, but without taking the liberty of asking too many questions.

They are usually made in a very structured way, with a previous script, they admit little flexibility, the questions are very closed, avoiding the patient or the job applicant to talk too much and about things that are not important for the course of the interview, besides offering a lot of relevant information in a very short period of time..

1. Interviewer takes a directive role

As the name suggests, in directive interviews the interviewer takes a directive role, that is, he/she is in charge, during most of the interview, of formulating the questions, there being a very marked asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer.

It is usually typical of formal interviews, such as the first psychodiagnostic session or a human resources job interview. a job interview in human resources.

The interviewer is the professional who is in charge of obtaining the information from the interviewee, who must simply respond.

2. Previously scripted

It is frequent that in this type of interviews a very well elaborated script has been previously made a very well elaborated script about what is going to be asked..

It could be said that the interviewer is in charge of reading, almost in its most literal formulation, the questions of the same script, and waiting for the interviewee to answer them in a relevant way, without giving too much information that does not matter.

3. With response alternatives

This does not mean that the interview follows an artificially linear order. It is true that it is preferable to respect the predefined orderHowever, it can be designed in such a way that it provides for different types of responses, giving indications of how to proceed in these cases.

For each alternative answer given by the interviewee, there are alternative questions to direct the interview towards a specific and pertinent objective.

4. Equal conditions of the interviewees

It is used in the workplace because, as the interview is based on a script, all job applicants are on an equal footing when they meet with human resources personnel. Since they are asked the same questions, there is no room for bias, there is no room for bias and free interpretation on the part of the recruiter..

In the field of clinical psychology, there are directive and structured interviews that allow a first idea of the patient's possible diagnosis to be obtained.

The first questions tend to focus on very general symptoms, and depending on whether the patient answers that he/she has them or not.The first questions tend to focus on very general symptoms, and depending on whether the patient answers that he/she has them or not, other questions are skipped to try to find out if the patient meets the criteria for a specific diagnosis.

An example of a direct diagnostic interview is the SCID-I, based on the DSM criteria. It is used, above all, by cognitive-behavioral psychologists.

5. They obtain accurate and important information

The directive interviews are conceived in this way because they are intended to fulfill a specific purpose.

Unlike a less formal interview, in the directive interview the professional has prepared the interview in advance with the intention of obtaining accurate and important information about the person, which will be used to make an important decision about his or her life, such as whether to receive a certain diagnosis or to be hired.

6. Quick to conduct

As they are interviews based on a script and in which the professional is the one who takes the leading role, managerial interviews have the useful feature of having greater control over time..

The interviewer, by asking very specific questions, prevents the patient/client or job applicant from answering too extensively and inappropriately, touching on topics that, at that moment, are not important for the course of the interview itself.

Advantages of directive interviews

The main advantage of directive interviews is that they are quick to carry out, since it is the interviewer who asks the questions, which are very closed, and doing so almost verbatim, avoids wasting too much time listening to the interviewee explain himself/herself.The interviewer is the one who asks the questions, which are very closed, and by doing so almost literally, avoids wasting too much time listening to the interviewee explain himself/herself. Sometimes the questions can be answered in monosyllables, which makes it possible to obtain the desired information without going into too much detail.

Another advantage is that they are easily replicable. You can ask exactly the same interview to several people, giving them the same response options. In addition, several interviewers can conduct the same interview, either in the same session or in other sessions.

In addition, it is common that for each item asked, the interviewer has a table of values based on what the patient/client or job applicant has answered, giving a score and seeing if he/she meets criteria for a disorder or is eligible to be hired, respectively. This makes the directive interview, especially the more structured cut-off, a very objective and formal technique.

Limitations

The main limitation of this type of interview is its lack of flexibility.. It is true that, to the extent necessary, some words in the questions can be changed, especially if they may be inconsistent with aspects such as gender, age or cultural level of the interviewee. But these changes are rather minimal and easily unpredictable, such as changing the gender of a word, using more age-appropriate words, or rephrasing the sentence using simpler vocabulary.

However, being inflexible, the scripted directive interview can make the mistake of ignoring information that may be important to the interviewee, especially in a psychodiagnostic context. Even if there are alternative items in case the patient gives one or another answer, it is possible that not all the information to be asked was taken into account when the interview was prepared, leaving details in the dark.

It should be noted that, although the interview time may be short, it takes a long time to prepare the interview beforehand.. Whoever prepares it must make sure that it includes all the questions you want to ask, and touches on all the aspects that are interesting for the final objective of the same. Whatever the purpose of the questionnaire, it requires extensive and thorough prior research. It is also necessary to define the scoring system that will be used to define how to evaluate the interviewee's answers.

Finally, if the interview is too structured and the interviewer takes on too strict a role as the interview leader, it can cause a certain rejection of the interviewee, mainly due to not feeling the freedom to express him/herself extensively. This is especially problematic in the field of psychology, since the patient may want to be listened to almost unconditionally, and wants to explain everything that is happening to him, not answer one after another question with yes or no.

Bibliographical references:

• Diaz, F. & Rodríguez, A. (2003). Selección y formación de personal. Granada: Editorial de la Universidad de Granada.
• Hough, L.M. & Oswald, F.L. (2000): Personnel selection. Looking toward the future - remembering the past. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 631-664.
• Torrecilla, J.M. (2006). The interview. Madrid, Spain: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.