The relentless pursuit of construct validity in the design of employment interviews

• Theoretical grounding is critical for construct validity of structured interviews.
• The proposed model suggests how to bring theoretical rigor in interview design.
• Theoretical rigor aids in separating construct variance from method variance.
• We provide a practical example to show how to apply the proposed model.

The construct validity of employment interviews is the greatest challenge faced by employment interview researchers. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical and methodological issues which have an influence upon the construct validity of employment interviews. We pay special attention to issues that emerge at the conceptual development and design stage of interviews. So far, the structuring of employment interviews has been the primary method of improving construct validity. We argue that construct validity can be further improved by bringing theoretical rigor in the design of interviews. For this purpose, we propose steps to reframe the interview dimensions in theoretical frameworks of job performance, to explicate the nomological network of interview constructs, to clarify the validation strategy, and to improve the questions and assessment keys. In the end, we provide an example to illustrate the application of these steps.

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