From first impressions to selection decisions. The role of dispositional cognitive motivations in the employment interview

Date04 February 2019
Published date04 February 2019
Pages249-272
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2017-0345
AuthorLiviu Florea,Sorin Valcea,Maria Riaz Hamdani,Thomas W. Dougherty
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
From first impressions to
selection decisions
The role of dispositional cognitive motivations
in the employment interview
Liviu Florea
Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, USA
Sorin Valcea
Management and Labor, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Maria Riaz Hamdani
The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA, and
Thomas W. Dougherty
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individual interviewersdispositional cognitive
motivations may influence interview interactions and outcomes. More specifically, this study explores the
influence of the need for cognition, need for cognitive closure, and accountability on the relationship between
first impressions and selection decisions.
Design/methodology/approach In total, 41 graduate students were assigned the role of interviewers and
were tasked to interview 331 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. The selection
interview was designed to recruit qualified undergraduate students to the MBA program of the university.
Findings First impressions significantly influenced selection decisions, but did not influence interviewers
behaviors. Moreover, multilevel analyses reveal that interviewersneed for cognition and accountability moderate
the relationship betweenfirst impression andselection decisions,albeit in differentdirection. Need for cognition
strengthens, whereas accountability weakens the relationship between first impression and selection decision.
Research limitations/implications A potential interviewer bias is apparent, where interviewers high on
need for cognition tend to weight first impressions more in the decision process. However, this bias was not
directly observable, since interviewersbehaviors during the interview were not affected by first impressions.
Originality/value The present study goes beyond previous research on first impressions in the
employment interview, finding that dispositional differences account for the tendency to weigh first
impressions in the selection decision.
Keywords Quantitative, Accountability, Employment interview, Need for cognition, First impressions,
Need for cognitive closure
Paper type Research paper
Employment interview literature suggests that interviewersdecisions can be influenced by
their initial evaluations of interviewees (Barrick et al., 2010; Ryan and Ployhart, 2014;
Swider et al., 2016). Typically conceptualized as the first impression formed within the first
moments of an interaction, initial evaluations have been shown to encourage confirmatory
behaviors,whichdenote interviewer behaviorsthat align with and seek to confirm the initial
impression (Dougherty et al., 1994). Increasing the structure of interviews can significantly
reduce this and othertypes of interview evaluationbiases (Campion et al., 1997). Nevertheless,
research indicates that various factors such as primacy effects, priming, and moods can
influence how individuals recall and interpret information during decision-making tasks
(e.g. Cacioppo et al., 1996). While interviewstructure and rating calibration mayreduce these
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 1, 2019
pp. 249-272
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-11-2017-0345
Received 16 November 2017
Revised 2 March 2018
Accepted 4 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The first two authors contributed equally and are listed alphabetically.
249
From first
impressions to
selection
decisions
biases, it is unlikely they would eliminate them altogether. Furthermore, while the behavior
confirmation of first impressions is welldocumented (e.g. Macan and Dipboye, 1990), there is
considerably less evidence for the cognitive pathway of first impression confirmation.
This study presentsmore evidence that a tendency toengage in cognitive confirmationexists
and can be predicted by interviewerscognitive motivations.
In our study, we expand the literature on first impressions by focusing on dispositional
cognitive motivations. In interview research, the effect of first impressions is typically
studied by focusing on resulting confirmatory interviewer behaviors (e.g. warmth or cold
toward the interviewee; Dougherty et al., 1994). The extent to which first impressions
influence interview outcomes through confirmatory behaviors can be seen as overt
confirmation of impressions. The overt confirmatory bias can most likely be reduced or even
eliminated by increasing interview structure, as it is more observable and controllable.
However, first impressions may also directly influence interview outcomes. We refer to the
direct effect of first impressions on selection decisions as the covertconfirmation of
impressions, and argue that this may be more difficult to eliminate, due to its less obvious
manifestation. Such direct influence may depend on certain interviewer characteristics.
Dispositional cognitive motivations are shown to be important for decision-making and
may help understand the direct effect of first impressions on interview outcomes.
As interviewerscognitive motivations are deeper, less visible, and less controllable,
studying such factors may deepen our understanding of covert confirmation of impressions.
We test our model, depicted in Figure 1 on the basis of a multilevel study design, using a
sample of 331 subjects interviewed by 41 interviewers.
Our study involves semi-structured interviews. Structuring of interviews can be
conceptualized as the degree of constraints on the interview questions and response
assessment (Levashina et al., 2014). Structure is a major determinant of interview validity,
where interviewvalidity generally increaseswith a higher degree of structure,until an optimal
point beyond which structure provides diminishing return (Huffcutt and Arthur, 1994).
Research has identified four degrees of structure with varying levels of constraints on
questions and response assessment. Unstructured interviews have no constraints on the
questions and provide a single global evaluation (Structure I). Semi-structured interviews
(Structures II and III) include some degree of constraint on questions by either specifying
topics to be covered or providing a list of questions from which interviewers can choose
questions. Interviewers have flexibility to ask probing questions. In terms of response
assessment, either a global assessmentor multiple evaluations on pre-established dimensions
are provided. Finally, the highest degree of structure (Structure IV) is characterized by
interviewswhere all candidates are asked thesame set of questions, in the same orderwith no
probing, and responses are assessed according to a standardized response assessment key.
Despite the meta-analytic confirmation of the predictive validity of structured
employment interviews (McDaniel et al., 1994) and confidence that they could identify the
Need for cognition
need for cognitive closure
accountability
Between-level variables
Within-level variables
First
impression
Interview
behavior
Selection
decision
H3
H4, H5 and H6
H1
H2
Figure 1.
Hypothesized model
250
PR
48,1

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