Browsing by Author "De Kock, Francois"

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    The anchoring and adjustment heuristic in unstructured interviews: an experimental study
    (2014) Pienaar, Chelsey Ellen; De Kock, Francois
    The presence of anchoring and adjustment within structured interviews has been widely observed in research over the years. However, the unstructured interview is a more extensively used selection tool than the structured interview, making it important to understand anchoring and adjustment in the unstructured interview setting. The present study investigated the presence of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic in unstructured interviews using a between-subjects, post-test only experimental design. The sample consisted of 78 managers and human resource personnel from various organisations. Subjects were required to watch a short video of an unstructured interview, and then provide an overall rating of the candidate's communication skills. Subjects were divided into high, low, and control conditions. A high, low, or no anchor was provided in the question asking subjects to rate the video candidate. Results indicated that anchoring and adjustment does not occur in simulated unstructured interviews. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.
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    Are we better at judging traits we share with targets? : rater personality, trait accessibility and judgement accuracy
    (2015) Gierdien, Zubeida; De Kock, Francois
    Researchers and practitioners in the personnel selection and assessment field are interested in understanding the characteristics of a good rater. However, few studies have so far examined raters’ personality traits and trait accessibility as predictors of accuracy. The present study investigated the relationship between these individual difference constructs and judgement accuracy for specific traits. Respondents from a field sample (N = 223) of managers and staff employed in financial services completed the survey questionnaire and rated the personalities of five hypothetical interview applicants depicted in vignettes. Our results showed that raters’ personality traits and judgement accuracy for corresponding target traits were unrelated. In other words, raters were not more accurate at judging traits they shared with targets. However, we found that certain personality traits such as agreeableness and openness to experience were related to trait accessibility for the same trait-raters high on these traits also tended to perceive others in terms of them. In addition, accessibility for certain traits such as extroversion and openness to experience predicted judgement accuracy for the same traits. Therefore, these findings enrich our understanding of rater individual differences that may affect judgement accuracy.
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    The effect of schema-based training on dispositional reasoning components : comparing frame-of-reference training and schema-feedback training
    (2015) Hall, Jonathan; De Kock, Francois
    Prior research shows that accurate interviewers have higher ‘dispositional reasoning’, defined as the ability to understand the relationship between personality, behaviour and situations. Drawing on schema theory, the present study attempted to determine if dispositional reasoning could be developed in students who participated in interview training. We used two different experiments to assess the relative effectiveness of two different training approaches to enhance the subcomponents of dispositional reasoning: trait induction, trait extrapolation and trait contextualisation. Our first experiment used traditional frame-ofreference (FOR) training in an attempt to develop dispositional reasoning. In a second experiment, we developed schema-feedback training, a novel approach to training dispositional reasoning that is based on the use of schema refinement through feedback. We found that neither approach had an effect on the participants’ dispositional reasoning component scores when compared to a ‘no-training’ comparison group. The low statistical power (due to a relatively small sample size) was a limitation in this study. Further research is necessary to determine the malleability of interviewers’ dispositional reasoning.