Thesis
Exploring and monitoring interviewers' cognitive processes of decision making using think aloud method
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2023
- Thesis identifier
- T16529
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201660776
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Employment interview has been one of the most commonly used selection tools across periods, regions, and industries. Aiming to select and hire talents for organisations, the performance of interviewers as the decision maker of employment interview has received wide interests from both practitioners and researchers. Regardless of a persistent call for research into the process of interviewers’ decision making (IDM), most existent studies base their conclusions on product analysis that examines the mathematical correlation between interviewers’ final decisions and various factors at a group level. In particular, a gap has been identified through a systematic literature review that interviewers’ cognitive processes (ICP), which plays a significant role in interviewers’ decision making, is under-investigated. Such a gap has not only limited the understanding of IDM but also constrained the possibility to improve it. To address the gap, this research inaugurally introduces a psychological method termed “think aloud method (TAM)” to explore ICP when completing an interview decision-making task. Specifically, the research first tested and confirmed the feasibility of applying TAM to examining ICP and developed an experiment procedure where TAM was effectively embedded in interview scenario. Then, rich data of ICP was collected from 29 participants with diversified backgrounds, all of whom were capable of working on the interview task while thinking aloud. Through a multi-level analysis of the data collected, (i) four types of information and 17 categories of cognitive actions following three information-processing strategies were recognised in ICP, (ii) four major characteristics of ICP were identified and quantified to enrich the understanding of the panorama, (iii) three cognitive dimensions were constructed to measure the corresponding aspects of interviewers’ judging behaviour that were believed to affect their decision quality, (iv) direct evidence of seven typical decision patterns and bias were identified from ICP, and (v) associations between various contextual factors (i.e., gender, national region of interview experience, experience level as interviewer, rating scale type) and ICP were tested, where the impact of these factors on ICP were found except for interviewers’ gender. The key findings of this research as well as their niche within the broader context of IDM research are discussed in detail with the trustworthiness of the research justified. This research uncovering the black box of interviewers’ cognitive process is expected to contribute both to the academic knowledge of IDM and the real-world practice of employment interview in various aspects, including promoting the understanding of IDM process at a cognitive level, monitoring the ongoing process of IDM rather than relying on the decision outcomes, guiding the improvement of interview design, and facilitating the development of interviewer training courses as well as decision aids. Potential limitations as a result of sample size and fixed task scenario are also discussed with the opportunities of future research highlighted.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Qin, Yi
- Wong, Andy T.C.
- Resource Type
- Note
- Previously held under moratorium from 23 March 2023 until 23 March 2024.
- DOI
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PDF of thesis T16529 | 2023-04-12 | Public | Download |