A Written Structured Interview by any Other Name is Still a Selection Instrument.

Abstract

The Written Structured Interview (WSI) is a flexible and cost effective alternative to the oral structured interview for collecting detailed information from job candidates. The WSI provides a set of behavioral and/or situational questions to candidates and has them respond in writing in a group setting. The process for developing the instruments for use by a state government, including questions and response rating scales, is described. Data were collected from job incumbents in several state government agencies on the clarity, knowledge, skill, ability and other characteristics (KSAO)-relevance, and job-relatedness of the question, as well as on the effectiveness of behavioral examples of responses. Inter-rater reliability of pilot test responses show an average estimate of.73, indicating that there was a reasonably high level of agreement in the scoring of the WSI responses across a broad range of jobs. When employers need to hire people who are qualified to perform a job, they frequently screen candidates using a traditional oral face-to-face interview. In fact, the employment interview is one of the most frequently used methods for selecting employees. For example, the Federal Government is one of the largest employers in the United States, currently employing approximately 1.6 million people in over 800