Why visual and vocal interview cues can affect interviewers' judgments and predict job performance.

Abstract

University of FloridaUsing videotaped interviews with 60 managers in utility companies, the authors found that acomposite of vocal interview cues (pitch, pitch variability, speech rate, pauses, and amplitudevariability) correlated with supervisory ratings of job performance (r = .18, p < .05). Usingvideotaped interviews with 110 managers in a news-publishing company, the authors foundthat the same composite of vocal cues correlated with performance ratings (r = .20, p < .05)and with interviewers' judgments (r — .20, p < .05) and that a composite of visual cues(physical attractiveness, smiling, gaze, hand movement, and body orientation) correlated withperformance ratings (r = .14, p < .07) and with interviewers' judgments (r = .21, p < .05).Results of tests of mediation effects indicate that personal reactions such as liking, trust, andattributed credibility toward interviewees explain relationships (a) between job performanceand vocal cues and (b) between interviewers' judgments and both visual and vocal cues.Empirical research has firmly established that nonverbalvisual cues displayed by interviewees affect interviewers'judgments about their suitability for employment (e.g., Gif-ford, Ng, & Wilkinson, 1985; Imada & Hakel, 1977;McGovern & Tinsley, 1978; Raza & Carpenter, 1987;Young & Beier, 1977). Nonverbal vocal cues such as pitch(e.g., Edwards, 1982), speech rate (e.g., Brown, 1980), andpauses (e.g., Scherer, 1978) that have been linked to thefavorability of impressions formed by listeners might alsoaffect interviewers' judgments but have not yet been studiedas much as visual cues in the context of employment inter-views. Recent research suggests that visual cues in theinterview can also be valid predictors of job performance(Burnett, 1993; Motowidlo & Burnett, 1995).If visual and vocal cues affect interviewers' judgmentsand predict job performance, we need to understand themechanisms through which they have these effects. Re-search reported in this article explores the idea that theintervening mechanism linking nonverbal interview cueswith interview judgments and job performance involvesTimothy DeGroot, Department of Business and Economics,Catholic University of America; Stephan J. Motowidlo, Depart-ment of Management, University of Florida.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toTimothy DeGroot, who is now at the Department of HumanResources and Management, Michael G. DeGroote School ofBusiness, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamil-ton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M4. Electronic mail may be sent todegroott @ mcmaster.ca.personal reactions that interviewers and coworkers formabout applicants and incumbents based on the nonverbalcues they display.Many jobs, but especially managerial jobs, demand suc-cessful personal interaction for effective performance. To beeffective, managers must be able to gain others' coopera-tion, communicate their ideas persuasively and compel-lingly, and successfully influence others to accept theirideas. Managers should be more successful interpersonallywhen their subordinates, peers, and superiors like and trustthem, believe they are competent, acknowledge their dom-inance, allow themselves to be persuaded by them, areinclined to comply with their influence attempts, and arewilling to help them. Thus, if subordinates, peers, andsuperiors form personal reactions such as these (i.e., trust,liking, attributed credibility, etc.) toward the manager, he orshe is more likely to be effective in the managerial role.