Managerial Interview: What It Is, Characteristics, Advantages And Disadvantages
The managerial interview is a type of interview in which the person conducting it takes a leading role that is, there is a clear asymmetry between interviewee and interviewer, with the latter being the one who acquires leadership.
Typically, these types of interviews are used in the field of personnel selection and psychopathological diagnosis, especially because they are usually very structured and, therefore, more objective. Let’s look a little more in depth at its characteristics.
The managerial interview is a type of interview in which the interviewer takes a very active role during the interview That is, he 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 ask too many questions.
They are usually asked in a very structured way, with a previous script, they allow little flexibility, the questions are very closed, preventing the patient or the job applicant from talking too much and about things that are not important for the course of the interview, in addition to offer a lot of relevant information in a very short time
1. Interviewer takes on a managerial role
As its name indicates, in managerial interviews the interviewer takes a managerial role, that is, he is in charge, during most of the interview, of formulating the questions, with a very marked asymmetry between the interviewee and the interviewer.
This 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 in charge of obtaining information from the interviewee, who must limit himself to responding.
It is common for this type of interview to have been previously carried out. a very well prepared script about what is going to be asked
It could be said that the interviewer is in charge of reading, almost in their most literal formulation, the questions from the same script, and hoping that the interviewee answers them in a pertinent 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. Yes it is true that It is preferable that the predetermined order be respected However, it can be designed in such a way that it provides for different types of responses, giving instructions on how to proceed in these cases.
For each response alternative given by the interviewee, there are alternative questions to direct the interview towards a specific and relevant objective for which it is carried out.
4. Equality of conditions of those interviewed
In the workplace it is used because, as the interview is based on a script, all job applicants are on equal terms when they meet human resources personnel. Since they are asked the same questions, there is no room for biases and free interpretations on the part of the coach
In the field of clinical psychology, there are directive and structured interviews that allow us to obtain a first idea of ​​the patient’s possible diagnosis.
The first questions tend to focus on very general symptoms and depending on whether they answer that they have them or not, they jump to other questions that 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 DSM criteria. It is used, above all, by cognitive-behavioral psychologists.
5. They obtain accurate and important information
Managerial interviews are conceived in this way because they are 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 precise and important information about the person, which serves to carry out an important decision about their life, such as receiving a certain diagnosis or being hired.
6. Quick to do
Since they are interviews based on a script and in which the professional takes the leading role, Managerial interviews have a very useful characteristic of having greater control over time
The interviewer, by asking very specific questions, prevents the patient/client or job applicant from answering in a way that is too extensive and not very specific, touching on topics that, at that moment, are not important for the course of the interview itself.
Advantages of management interviews
The main advantage of managerial interviews is that They are quick to carry out, since, since the interviewer is the one who formulates the questions, which are very closed , and doing it almost literally, you avoid wasting too much time listening to the interviewee expound. Sometimes, the questions are answerable with 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 response options. In addition, several interviewers may conduct 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 asked based on what the patient/client or job applicant has answered, giving it a score and seeing if it meets criteria for a disorder or meets requirements for 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 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 the 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, using more appropriate words based on the age of the subject or reformulating the phrase using simpler vocabulary.
However, since it is not very flexible, the managerial interview with a very marked script can make the mistake of ignoring information that may be important for the person interviewed, especially in the context of psychodiagnosis. Although 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 pipeline.
It should be said that, Although the duration of the interview may be brief, its prior preparation takes a long time Whoever prepares it must make sure that it includes all the questions they want to ask, and touches on all the aspects that are interesting for its final objective. Whatever it is, extensive and in-depth 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 person interviewed.
Finally, if the interview is too structured and the interviewer takes a too strict role as its leader, it can cause a certain rejection from the interviewee, due, above all, to not feeling the freedom to express themselves at length. 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 happens to him, not answer questions one after another with a yes or no.
