an examination of ability-based emotional intelligence

144 Pages·2006·1.44 MB·English

AN EXAMINATION OF ABILITY-BASED

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE
STRUCTURED EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

By
DONALD H. KLUEMPER

Bachelor of Science
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, Indiana
1993

Masters of Science
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, Indiana
2000

Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate College of the
Oklahoma State University
In partial fulfillment of
The requirements for
The Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
May 2006
AN EXAMINATION OF ABILITY-BASED
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE
STRUCTURED EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

Dissertation Defense:
_________________________________________________
Dr. Mark Gavin (Chair)

_________________________________________________
Dr. Timothy DeGroot

_________________________________________________
Dr. Debra Nelson

_________________________________________________
Dr. Gary Frankwick

_________________________________________________
Dr. A. Gordon Emslie
Dean of the Graduate College
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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First, I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Mark Gavin, Dr. Tim
DeGroot, Dr. Debra Nelson, and Dr Gary Frankwick, for all of their time and continued
support given to me during this process. A special thanks to Dr. Tim DeGroot, who has
put in countless hours to help guide me through this process, who has always been
brutally honest with me, and who has continually pushed me towards a higher level of
performance. Thanks to all my fellow PhD students (and recent graduates) for their
support throughout this process. Finally, I would kike to thank my wife Maria for
keeping me sane through this process, for being the best friend I could ever hope for, and
for inspiring me to continually strive to be a better person.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION………………...……………………………………….. 1
Research Models………………………………………………………. 3
Implications for Theory………………………………………………. 7
Implications for Practice………………………………………………. 9

II. LITERATURE REVIEW…………………….…………………………… 10
Job Interview………………………………………………………….. 10
The role of the Job Interview in Employment Selection…………. 10
Unstructured vs. Structured Interviews…………………………… 11
Situational vs. Behavioral Description Interview Questions……… 14
Job Performance…………………………………………………… 16
Intelligence in Employment Selection and Job Performance……… 17
Personality in Employment Selection and Job Performance……… 19
Emotional Intelligence…………………………………………………. 20
Emotional Intelligence as an Intelligence………………………….. 21
Emotions as they relate to Emotional Intelligence………………… 23
Alternative Models and Measures of Emotional Intelligence……… 25
Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso’s Ability-based Model of EI………….. 30
Emotional Intelligence and the Employment Interview…………… 37
Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance……………………… 42
Emotional Intelligence and Gender……………………………….. 43
EI dimensions………………………………………………………….. 45
The Perception and Appraisal of Emotional Intelligence………….. 48
The Assimilation of Emotion Dimension of Emotional Intelligence 51
The Understanding Emotions Dimension of Emotional Intelligence 53
The Managing Emotions Dimension of Emotional Intelligence….. 56

III. METHODS………………………………………………………………… 59
Sample…………………………………………………………………. 59
Research Design and Context…………………………………………. 63
Development of the Structured Interview Questions……………… 64
Conducting the Interview…………………………………………. 68
Interview Ratings………………………………………………….. 70
Operationalization of Dependent Constructs…………………………. 75
Operationalization of Independent Constructs………………………… 76
Data Analysis Techniques………………………………………………79

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IV RESULTS………………………………………………………………….. 81
Pilot Study – Preliminary Data Analyses……………………………….81
Pilot Study – Results of Hypothesis Tests……………………………... 84
Field Study – Preliminary Data Analyses……………………………… 95
Field Study – Results of Hypothesis Tests…………………………….. 96

V CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS………………………………… 104
Discussion……………………………………………………………… 104
Limitations……………………………………………………………... 111
Directions for Future Research………………………………………… 112

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………..………………………………………….... 114

APPENDIXES…………………………………………………………………….. 128

APPENDIX A – Pilot study job description, pilot study interview
questions, field study job description, field study interview
questions, and supervisor performance evaluation……………….. 129

APPENDIX B – IRB FORM………………………………………………. 135

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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page

1. Descriptives and correlations among pilot study variables………………………82

2. Pilot study results of hierarchical regression analysis on situational interview
ratings……………………………………………………………………. 85

3. Pilot study results of hierarchical regression analyses on behavioral
descriptive interview ratings………………………………………………. 87

4. Pilot study results of hierarchical regression analyses on job performance…….. 91

5. Descriptives and correlations among field study variables………………………94

6. Field study results of hierarchical regression analyses on situational interview
ratings…………………………………………………………………….. 97

7. Field study results of hierarchical regression analyses on behavioral
descriptive interview ratings………………………………………………. 100

8. Field study results of hierarchical regression analyses on job performance……. 102
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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Composite EI Model…………………………………………………………….. 4

2. EI Sub-dimensions Model………………………………………………………..6

3. Pilot study interaction between perceiving emotions and gender in the
behavior descriptive interview…………………………………………….. 89

4. Pilot study interaction between facilitating thought and gender in the
behavior descriptive interview……………………………………………. 90

5. Pilot study interaction between managing emotions and gender on
job performance…………………………………………………………… 93

6. Field study interaction between perceiving emotion and gender in the
situational interview……………………………………………………….. 99

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Research on emotional intelligence (EI) is gaining momentum and becoming one
of the most topical areas of organizational research (Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004).
Although the concept of emotional intelligence was developed by Salovey and Mayer
(1990), interest in EI has increased dramatically with a popular book from Dan Goleman
(1995). The popularity of EI has been met with both acclaim and criticism within the
academic community.
EI has been conceptualized in various ways, such as mixed models consisting of
various components including intelligence, personality, motivation, and competencies as
well as ability-based models rooted exclusively in intelligence. These differing
conceptualizations have led to controversy in the academic literature regarding how EI
should be defined and what dimensions constitute emotional intelligence. These differing
models have also been operationalized in different ways including self-reports, peer-
reports, and ability tests. Each of these models and operationalizations has its own
theoretical and methodological issues, as well as merits and limitations.
Afour factor ability-based measure of emotional intelligence has begun to
emerge, arguably, as the most valid measure of emotional intelligence to date (Van Rooy
&Viswesvaran, 2004). The four factors consist of the ability to perceive, facilitate,
understand, and manage emotions. Although conceptual and methodological issues still
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exist (see Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2004), there has been an increased interest in
testing the predictive ability of ability-based emotional intelligence, particularly in the
employment context. Of particular interest is the role of emotional intelligence in the
context of employee selection and job performance. These calls have come from the
personnel selection literature (Robertson & Smith, 2001) as well as the emotional
intelligence literature (Ashkanasy, Hartel, & Daus, 2002).
The employment interview is a critical component of the employment selection
process and consists of a complex social interaction between candidate and interviewer.
Emotions influence the outcomes of this interaction on many levels (Fox & Spector,
2000). The employment interview appears to be an ideal context in which to study the
role of emotional intelligence, particularly given the ability of interviews to predict job
performance (Robertson & Smith, 2001).
In the context of the employment interview, the style of interview may impact
interviewee reactions. Of the various types of interviews, both situational and behavioral
descriptive interviews have been demonstrated to provide reliable and valid results.
However, based on the work of Huffcutt, Weekley, Wiesner, DeGroot, and Jones (2001),
the behavioral descriptive interview (BDI) demonstrates higher predictive power in all
job types, while the situational interview (SI) demonstrates high predictive power only in
lower level jobs. This issue is a central focus for this study, in that the antecedents of the
situational versus behavior descriptive interview need to be explored further in order to
better understand what characteristics drive interview ratings for different types of jobs.
Interview rating is defined as “the ratings used to evaluate the interviewee by the
interviewer.”
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Job performance is also a central focus of this study. Specifically, do emotionally
intelligent individuals perform better on the job? Organizations are settings in which
employees encounter variety of interpersonal interactions and stressful events. These
situations give rise to the prevalence of emotions in organizations. It has been argued
that individuals high in emotional intelligence have a greater ability to perform on the
job, considering the frequency in which emotional situations occur on the job. Despite
calls in the literature for an evaluation of EI as a predictor of job performance, little
evidence currently exists.

Research Models

Minimal research has been conducted examining the effect of EI in the
employment interview and job performance contexts. Thus, this study attempts to
discover how emotional intelligence may play a role in both employment interviews and
job performance. To this end, Figure 1 shows the model that will be used to explain the
proposed relationships.

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