NCJ Number
70325
Journal
Public Personnel Management Issue: 5 Dated: (September/October 1979) Pages: 324-328
Date Published
1979
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The reliability of the oral interview used for the position of police officer by the Louisiana State Civil Service was determined; results were compared to the reliability data of other oral interviews.
Abstract
The development of the oral interview began with a job analysis which was designed to identify and define dimensions associated with successful job performance, and to generate actual job situations which could be developed into interview questions. The selected dimensions included personal appearance, oral communication skills, decisiveness, mental alertness, pride in job, dealing effectively with people, and judgment. Four interview questions were developed from job situations so that applicants could be evaluated on all dimensions. Interviewers included two State Civil Service staff members and a member of another agency who had a thorough knowledge of the police officer's job. The 30-minute interviews were partially structured through the use of the four questions and the opportunity for followup questions in order to clarify answers. Each candidate was assigned a numerical rating from one to six for each dimension by each interviewer, and a final score was the average total numerical score for the raters. For the reliability study, the ratings of 67 applicants were utilized. The average reliability of the individual rater and the reliability of the composite rating were calculated by using the statistical procedure of intraclass correlations. The interrater reliability of the final mean rating was 0.90. Although the reliability level was slightly lower than desirable for a selection instrument, the results indicate a large amount of agreement among raters on applicants. The intraclass correlations were higher than those reported by three other studies, and only slightly lower than a fourth. Suggested improvements include the addition of more structure to the interview and the adoption of a more behaviorally oriented rating scale. Data tables and seven references are provided.