Read the text and do the tasks
Nonverbal communication in the evaluation of personnel
1. Much of personnel work involves the evaluation of workers. Personnel professionals attempt to gather information about the suitability of potential employees via resumes, job applications, and employment tests, but especially through evaluations made in hiring interviews (Eder & Harris, 1999). Nonverbal communication plays an important part in the hiring interview from both the applicant's and the interviewer's perspectives (see Posthuma, Morgeson, & Campion, 2002).
2. First, the savvy applicant engages in careful impression management, thoughtfully monitoring verbal responses to emphasize job-related strengths and hide potential weaknesses (Fletcher, 1989; Gilmore, Stevens, Harrell-Cook, & Ferris, 1999). In addition, the applicant strives to display a positive, interested demeanor. Research on the role of nonverbal cues in the hiring interview suggests that applicants displaying more expressive visual nonverbal behaviors, and cues of nonverbal immediacy, such as greater incidence of eye contact and smiling, more interviewer-focused, outward gestures, and a more direct body orientation (e.g., forward lean), receive more favorable evaluations than non-expressive interviewees (Gifford, Ng, & Wilkinson, 1985; Imada & Hakel, 1977; McGovern & Tinsley,1978; Wexley, Fugita, & Malone, 1975).
3. In addition, paralinguistic cues, such as speech rate and fluency, the absence of speech errors/disturbances, and pitch variability are also positively correlated with evaluations of applicants in interviews (DeGroot & Motowidlo, 1999). Interestingly, static nonverbal cues of physical attractiveness, appropriate business attire, and good grooming also have a positive effect on evaluations of interviewees – typically outweighing the influence of expressive cues (Cann, Siegfried, & Pearce, 1981; Heilman & Saruwatari,1979; Riggio & Throckmorton, 1988; see also Andersen & Bowman, 1999).
4. Despite the impact of nonverbal cues on evaluations of interviewees, it is clear that greater attention is paid to what the applicant is saying, with certain verbal misstatements having a huge impact on whether an interviewee is viewed as «hirable» (Riggio & Throckmorton, 1987, 1988). Because one goal of the interview is to uncover the «truth» about an applicant's suitability for a job, research on deception is applicable to interview settings.
5. Some of the deception research and research on channel inconsistencies in affect suggests that if there is perceived inconsistency in what the individual is saying and the nonverbal behavior accompanying the statement, then the nonverbal channel may be given greater weight than the applicant's words in forming an overall impression of the applicant (DePaulo & Rosenthal, 1979; Mehrabian, 1972; Mehrabian & Wiener, 1967; Vrij, 2000; Vrij & Mann, chap. 4, this volume). Generalizing to the interview setting, this would be consistent with interviewers who report that although the interviewee gave appropriate answers in the interview, «something did not seem right», causing them to doubt the veracity of the interviewee and to give him or her an overall negative evaluation.
(Julia T. Wood : Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters / Julia T. Wood. – The USA : Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. – P.121).
Define the statement which corresponds to the contents of the text.
According to the text in the hiring interview an applicant should be calm and emotionless to conceal his weak sides.
The author underlines that personnel professionals consider verbal way of expressing an applicant’s thoughts to be more trustworthy than those of nonverbal in any case.
It should be noted that in the hiring interview an applicant should pay more attention to the contents of his speech than to the way of presenting it.
From the author’s point of view crucial evaluating of an applicant’s suitability for some job takes place in the hiring interview.
