The effects of interviewer training in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines and the sex of interviewee on ratings of that interviewee were investigated in this study. Previous research on job interviewing indicated that interviewee choices or ratings are based primarily on subjective data, such as attractiveness of the interviewee, sex of the interviewee, and perceived attitude similarity, rather than on objective, job-related criteria. / Current legislation, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, requires that interviewee hiring be based solely upon job-related criteria and that biases due to such things as race, color, religion, sex and national origin be eliminated. Organizations have attempted to comply with these rules, but have had little success, particularly in the area of eliminating biases in interviewing due to sex of the interviewee. Therefore, this study examined the sex source of bias in the employment interview and attempted to minimize its effect through training in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines, those written to enforce title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. / The hypotheses were: (H(,1)) Interviewers not trained in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines will rate male interviewees significantly higher than equally qualified female interviewees when interviewing for a neuter-gender job. (H(,2)) Interviewers trained in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines will rate equally qualified male and female interviewees the same when interviewing applicants for a neuter gender job. (H(,3)) Training in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines will have a greater effect on the ratings of equally qualified male and female interviewees than will the sex of the interviewee when interviewing for a neuter-gender job. / One hundred thirty-six students enrolled in introductory management classes served as interviewers for the study. They were all trained in interviewing skills and on the use of the three dependent measure scales used for rating interviewees: (1) How qualified is the applicant for this job?; (2) How strongly do you recommend hiring this applicant for the job?; and, (3) What starting salary do you recommend for this applicant? / The control group then interviewed one male and one female job applicant in random order. Both applicants had been judged to be equally qualified for the job and the job had been judged to be neuter in gender. Meanwhile, the treatment group received a lecture and discussion on Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines by the Affirmative Action Officer of the University System of New Hampshire (the training). They mastered the material at the 90 percent level immediately after training. Then, the treatment group interviewed the same male and female job interviewees for the neuter-gender job in random order. / All subjects completed the three dependent measure scales after each interview. / The results were analyzed using t-tests for repeated measures and a 2 x 2 mixed design analysis of variance, with repeated measures on one factor. / The results of the study indicated that interviewers, both trained and untrained in Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines, rated male and female interviewees significantly different, with females being rated higher than the males. In addition, while training did have a significant effect on the ratings of all interviewees, it did not have as strong of an effect as the sex of the interviewee on the ratings. Thus, all three hypotheses were rejected. / The results of the experiment were discussed in relation to Equal Employment Opportunity policy. Limitations of the research were discussed and suggestions for future research made. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4562. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74626 |
| Contributors | MIREE, LUCIA FRANCES., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 144 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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