Executive interview: what is it, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

The managerial interview is a type of interview in which the person conducting it takes a leading roleIn other words, there is a clear asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer, the latter being the one who acquires the leadership of the interviewer.

Usually, this type of interview is used in the field of personnel selection and in the psychopathological diagnosis, especially since they tend to be very structured and, therefore, more objective. Let's take a closer look at its characteristics.

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The managerial 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 being the one to do too many questions.

They are usually made in a very structured way, with a previous script, they allow little flexibility, the questions are very closed, avoiding that the patient or job applicant talks too much and about things that are not important to the course of the interview, in addition to

provide lots of relevant information in a very short time.

1. Interviewer takes management role

As his own name indicates, in directive interviews the interviewer takes a directive role, that is, he is in charge, during the Most of the interview, to ask the questions, there being a very marked asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer.

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

The interviewer is the professional who is in charge of obtaining the information from the interviewee, who must limit himself to answering.

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2. With previous script

It is common for this type of interview to have previously carried out a very well crafted script about what you are going to wonder.

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 pertinent way, without giving too much information that matters.

3. With answer alternatives

This is not to say that the interview follows an artificially linear order. Yes it is true that it is preferable that the preset order is respectedHowever, it can be designed in such a way that it provides for different types of response, 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 for which it is carried out.

4. Equal conditions of the interviewees

In the workplace it is used because, as the interview is based on a script, all the job seekers are on an equal footing when they meet resource staff humans. As they are asked the same questions, there is no room for bias and free interpretations by the coach.

In the field of clinical psychology, there are directive and structured interviews that allow obtaining a first idea of ​​the possible diagnosis of the patient.

The first questions tend to focus on very general symptoms, and depending on whether he answers that he has them or not, he skips to other questions that are trying to find out if the patient meets 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.

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5. They get accurate and important information

Managerial interviews are conceived in this way because it is intended to fulfill a specific purpose.

Unlike a less formal interview, in the managerial interview the professional has previously prepared the interview with the intention of obtaining information precise and important information about the person, which serves to carry out an important decision about the person's life, such as receiving a certain diagnosis or being hired.

6. Quick to perform

Being interviews based on a script and in which the one who takes the directive role is the professional, Management interviews have the very useful characteristic of having greater control of time.

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

Advantages of managerial interviews

The main advantage of managerial interviews is that They are quick to carry out, since, as the interviewer asks the questions, which are very closed, and doing it in an almost literal way, you avoid wasting too much time listening to the interviewee elaborate. Sometimes the questions can be answered in monosyllables, which allows obtaining the desired information without going into too much detail.

Another advantage is that they are easily replicable. You can do exactly the same interview with several people, giving them the same answer options. In addition, it can be several interviewers who carry out the same interview, both in the same session and in other sessions.

Furthermore, it is common for the interviewer to have a table of values ​​for each item that is asked based on what the interviewer has answered. patient / client or job applicant, giving them a score and seeing if they meet criteria for a disorder or meet the requirements to be hired, respectively. This makes the managerial interview, especially the more structured one, a very objective and formal technique.

Limitations

The main limitation of this type of interview is its little flexibility. It is true that, as necessary, some words of the questions can be changed, about All if they can be inconsistent with aspects such as sex, age or cultural level of the person interviewed. But these changes are rather minimal and easily unpredictable, such as changing the gender of a word, use more appropriate words based on the age of the subject or rephrase the sentence using a more vocabulary easy.

However, as it is not very flexible, the managerial interview with a very marked script can make the mistake of being ignore information that may be important to the interviewee, especially in the context of psychodiagnosis. Although there are alternative items in case the patient gives one or the other answer, it is possible that no all the information to be asked when the interview was carried out was taken into account, leaving details in the inkwell.

It should be said that, Although the duration of the interview may be short, its preparation takes a long time 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 it is for, extensive and deep prior research is required. It is also necessary to define the scoring system that will be used to define how to evaluate the responses of the interviewee.

Finally, if the interview is too structured and the interviewer takes too strict a role as the leader of the itself, can cause a certain rejection of the interviewee, due, above all, to not feeling the freedom to express themselves widely. This is especially problematic in the field of psychology, since the patient may want to be heard from almost unconditionally, and wants to explain everything that happens to him, not answer one question after another with a yes or a not.

Bibliographic references:

• Díaz, F. & Rodríguez, A. (2003). Selection and training of personnel. Granada: Editorial of the University of 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: Autonomous University of Madrid.