New Recruiting Trends for the COVID-19 Pandemic, The Effect of Interviewer Video on Applicant’s Reactions and Impression Management Behavior in Asynchronous Video Interview

Abstract

Since COVID-19 pandemic, the use of asynchronous video interviews(AVIs) has increased in the selection process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the interviewer video on the applicants' reactions and impression management behavior during the AVIs process. Accordingly, interviewees were randomly assigned to three conditions and participated in the AVIs. The first condition is that every process of the AVIs was conducted through text only. The second and the third condition both provide videos that ask questions and listen to the applicants' answers, but the former includes virtual character interviewers while the latter includes real person interviewers. Results indicated that the most positive interviewees' reactions were shown in the third condition. In detail, the third condition showed higher social presence, interpersonal treatment, and perceived usefulness compared to the first condition in the AVIs process, and the interviewer video that includes real person interviewers had positive effects on procedural justice and organizational attractiveness through these variables. In the case of the second condition, there was no significant difference in the applicants’ reactions to the first condition, and it showed a lower social presence than in the third condition. Hence it indicates that the virtual characters cannot substitute the positive effects of real person interviewers. Also, there was no notable difference in honesty and deceptive impression management behavior between the three conditions. This study is meaningful in that it proposed an effective way to improve the participants’ reactions in conducting the AVIs, and is expected to be used as a basis for research related to the construction of AVIs.