Unstructured Interview

Unstructured Interview

Unstructured Interviews is when the format and questions asked are left to the discretion of the interviewer. An unstructured interview is sometimes more than a little conversation and it is used often by employing organization. Unstructured interviews are lack of the following: Lacks advance planning Lack of consistency in assessing candidates Lack of reliability and validity A classic study on unstructured, published in 1929, asked 12 interviewers independently to rate 57 applicants on their suitability for sales job. Although the interviewers were experienced sales managers who conducted many interviews with job applicants, there was a significant lack of agreement among them. Results Some applicant who were ranked first by one reviewer were ranked last by another 2. The information would be of no help to a manager trying to decide whether to hire this applicant because it offers no firm basis on which to judge the persons suitability

^ Schultz & Schultz, Duane (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-205-68358-4. ^ Schultz & Schultz, Duane (2010). Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-205-68358-4.=

Unstructured Interviews are a method of interviews where questions can be changed or adapted to meet the respondent's intelligence, understanding or belief. Unlike a structured interview they do not offer a limited, pre-set range of answers for a respondent to choose, but instead advocate listening to how each individual person responds to the question.

The method to gather information using this technique is fairly limited, for example most surveys that are carried out via telephone or even in person tend to follow a structured method. Outside of sociology the use of such interviews is very limited.