Assignment: Inflating Applicant Expectations
Assignment: Inflating Applicant Expectations
Assignment: Inflating Applicant Expectations
In a case approach, an applicant enters into a carefully crafted job-related situa- tion that may take from minutes to hours to resolve. This situation may involve the use of personnel, a working relationship, a production or management problem, a safety issue, or recurring customer complaints. Some employers create elaborate simula- tions that may require role playing and involve several people, including more than one applicant.
All on-the-job questions are based on the belief that the best way to determine how an applicant may perform a job with your organization is to observe the applicant addressing or performing realistic job-related tasks. Many applicants who can talk about
Behavior-based and critical incident ques- tions assess how applicants would handle real work situations.
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A case approach is the most realistic on-the-job question format.
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theories, principles, and practices may be unable to apply them in real-life situations. Be careful of applicants who can tell good stories in realistic and likeable manners. Dig beneath the surface of what may be a carefully planned and rehearsed fictional narrative. For example, when recruiters asked MBAs to relate a time when they faced a challenging situation, six provided identical answers about serving on a fund-raising committee. Unfortunately, none of the six had ever served on a fund-raising commit- tee. They provided answers they thought recruiters wanted to hear.24 Remember, there are always two applicants in every interview, the real and the make-believe. Much of what you are observing and hearing may be a meticulously crafted façade. Whether asking traditional or on-the-job questions, rely on probing questions to determine what is genuine and what is make-believe, and to unearth specifics, knowledge, expertise, feelings, motivations, attitudes, and preferences.
Remember an additional factor when asking on-the-job questions. Experienced applicants have a wealth of examples from which to draw, while soon-to-be college graduates and those with little experience have few. Try to provide a level playing field when you are interested in a variety of levels of experience.
Avoid becoming a cheerleader, as many of our student interviewers tend to do, by saying “Great!” “Very good” or “Awesome!” after every answer. Applicants will come to expect the praise and become concerned if it stops. Maintain a pleasant, supportive poker face that never reveals whether you believe an answer is very good, negative, or outrageous.
Giving Information Providing information during the interview is a major determinant of applicant satis- faction. Before you begin to give information, however, ask two important transition questions: “What do you know about this position?” and “What do you know about our organization?” Answers to these questions reveal, first, how much homework the applicant has done and the applicant’s level of interest and work ethic. Second, they tell you what the applicant already knows about the position and organization so you can begin where the person’s knowledge leaves off. This prevents you from giving informa- tion the applicant already has.
Give information to facilitate the matching process between the organization and the applicant. Information about your organization’s reputation, organizational culture, the position, typical work day, and advancement opportunities are important factors in acceptance of job offers. You may compare your organization to your competitors’, but do not be negative.
Sell the advantages of your position and organization. Avoid exaggerating, inten- tionally hiding negative aspects of the position or organization, or inflating applicant expectations. These practices result in high rates of employee dissatisfaction and turn- over. Avoid gossip. Do not talk too much about yourself. While you want to inform applicants thoroughly, your information giving must not dominate the interview. You will learn more about the applicant by listening than by talking. Review the guidelines for information giving in Chapter 12 and follow these suggestions.
• Practice good communication skills because applicants may judge the “authen- ticity” of information by how it is communicated verbally and nonverbally.
Information is the primary interest of applicants.
Minimize “you” in the interview.
Rule #1: Keep your ears open and your mouth shut.
Probing questions produce insights.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
- The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.