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CHAPTER QUESTION 5: WHAT TYPES OF QUESTIONS WOULD YOU ASK JOB
CANDIDATES DURING AN INTERVIEW TO UNDERSTAND THEIR ETHICS? HOW
WOULD YOU KNOW IF THE CANDIDATES ARE RESPONDING TRUTHFULLY?
STEP 5: Interview Questions
BACKGROUND
The in-person interview provides another opportunity to obtain relevant information
about a job candidate’s ethics. The interviewer can ask for clarifications on the
ethics-related information already gathered and probe information gaps and
inconsistencies.
Question job applicants about how they responded to previous ethical dilemmas, be
sensitive to false cues that might indicate the candidate is lying, and provide a realistic
preview of the job environment.
PREVIOUS ETHICAL DILEMMAS
Asking job candidates to describe how they managed an ethical dilemma at a
previous employer can be very useful. Human beings are creatures of habit and the
job candidate will bring these response patterns to work.
Some individuals do not know what is meant by the words fiethics” or fiethical
dilemma.” Ask probing questions that highlight specific ethical issues – such as
observing theft, sexual harassment, and legal violations.
oTell me about a time when you observed an employee or customer stealing
product. How did you respond?
oTell me about a time when you observed an employee sexually harassing
another employee or customer. How did you respond?
oTell me about a time when you observed anything at work, or did anything at
work, that violated industry standards or the law. How did you respond?
oTell me about a time when you were asked by a boss, co-worker, customer, or
supplier to do something unethical. How did you respond?
oTell me about a time when you observed anything at work, or did anything at
work, that bothered your conscience. How did you respond?
If the individual has not experienced any ethical dilemmas, then transform the issue
into a hypothetical situation: fiWould you accept a free lunch from a client wanting to
do business with the organization?”
Sensitize job candidates to real-life ethical dilemmas current employees have
experienced and ask how they would respond. The job interviewer can develop
ethical dilemmas based on his or her own experience, or have current employees
compose them as an ethics training workshop activity (see Chapter 6).
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Put students in pairs. Tell Student 1 that s/he is applying for a job and Student 2 is an HR
manager. Then have the HR manager ask the job applicant the five questions noted above (i.e.,
Tell me about a time when you observed an employee or customer stealing product. How did you
respond?).
Did the HR manager believe the job applicant did a good job responding to the questions? What
advice would the HR manager recommend to improve the job applicant’s answers?
Then change roles and do again.
VISUALLY DETECTING FOR LIES
According to researchers, there is no particular fiPinocchio Effect,” where, similar to the
Walt Disney character, an individual’s nose grows whenever he or she tells a lie.
Researchers examined 1,338 estimates of 158 different bodily and verbal cues for lying,
and found no single cue compelling. Behavioral responses assumed to be cues for
detecting a lie include:
Bodily Tendencies: Less eye contact, increased blinking, pupil dilation,
fidgeting, shaking knee, tapping fingers, sweating, pressing lips together,
display fewer gestures (tightly wound), deep breaths, gulps, and less pleasant
facial features.
Verbal Tendencies: Hesitancy in responding, frequent speech disturbances
(fium,” fiah,” fida”), sighs, higher pitch, longer response before answering
(trying to figure out a consistent lie), provide less details, and less certain in
responses.
There is some truth that these bodily and verbal tendencies, or a combination of them,
may suggest lying, but not enough truth to generalize to the specific person being
interviewed.
Sometimes honest individuals exhibit the assumed tendencies of liars. For
instance, a person might avoid eye contact with the interviewer because she
or he is shy, nervous about not getting the highly desired job, or lost in
thought.
On the other end of the interviewee behavior spectrum, a confident person
looking directly into the interviewer’s eyes might be a well-trained liar trying
to deceive the interviewer.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Ask students to think about several times when they knowingly told a bold lie or observed
someone else doing so. Are there particular bodily tendencies and verbal tendencies from the list
above that they tend to exhibit in these high stress situations?
REALISTIC JOB PREVIEWS
Present finalists with a fiRealistic Job Preview,” an honest description of daily work
activities that highlights both the exciting and tedious aspects of the job.
If only the most exciting aspects of the job are discussed, the new employee will
experience fientry shock” regarding the tedious aspects of work and conclude s/he has
been misled or managers cannot be trusted.
Researchers have found that an honest and balanced presentation of the actual job
experience does not reduce acceptance rates, which is what interviewers fear. Instead,
realistic job previews lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction and lower levels
of turnover because the new employee’s expectations are more aligned with reality.
ADDITIONAL QUESTION 6: WHAT TYPE OF DRUG TEST WOULD YOU USE FOR
JOB APPLICANTS?
STEP 6: Post-Interview Tests
After interviewing the finalists, some organizations make the job offer contingent on passing a
drug test and polygraph test. When appropriate, conduct drug and polygraph tests as a final test
of the job finalist’s integrity. Some jobs, such as those at a nuclear reactor facility, require these
tests.
BACKGROUND
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 9.4 million working
Americans use illicit drugs.
The typical illegal drug user is a low-paid white male between the ages of 18 and 25.
Industries with the highest rates of illicit drug use are food preparation, restaurants
and bars, construction, and transportation.
Workplace substance abuse is estimated to cost employers $120 billion a year.
Millions of Americans are tested for drug use as a pre-employment screen or
condition of continued employment. Some companies in the transportation industry,
and those with large federal contracts, are required by law to conduct drug tests. Drug
tests are easy to administer and relatively inexpensive.
DRUG TESTING OPTIONS
Drug use can be determined by an analysis of blood, urine, hair, or saliva.
Marijuana, the most commonly tested-for drug, can be detected in the blood system
for two days, in urine from 2–14 days, and in hair follicles for up to 90 days.
Urinalysis is the most often used method for pre-employment drug testing.
oWeakness: It is the most personally invasive. A closely observed urine
collection process can be a degrading experience. But if not closely observed,
job candidates can switch samples or change the composition of the urine
through detox products.
Hair testing is less invasive than urinalysis and has greater validity. A strand of hair
contains an individual’s drug history during the lifetime of that hair.
oWeakness: It takes longer to obtain laboratory results from hair tests.
Analyzing saliva is noninvasive, easy to collect, and results can be obtained in a few
minutes.
oWeakness: Saliva is useful only for determining drug use during the previous
two days, after which drug traces are no longer contained in saliva.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Ask students if anyone has been tested for drug use? What was the experience like? Would it be
easy for someone taking drugs to fake the results?
CHAPTER QUESTION 6: UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS CAN A JOB CANDIDATE BE
GIVEN A POLYGRAPH TEST?
BACKGROUND
Polygraphs, also known as lie detectors, can be used as a job screen by federal, state, and
local government agencies, as well as businesses, engaged in national security issues.
The Department of Defense has an annual polygraph budget of $200 million, with $3
million allocated to the Polygraph Institute for instruction and research.
HISTORY
The first lie detector machine, designed in 1917 by a Harvard-trained psychologist,
measured an individual’s blood pressure.
oThe machine’s capabilities were expanded to simultaneously measure three
physiological factors – blood pressure, pulse rate, and skin changes. These
measures were graphed on a piece of paper, thus the formal name of the
machine, a polygraph.
oBut the results were unreliable, with accuracy rates only in the 40-55 percent
range, on par with flipping a coin.
The scientific community concluded that polygraphs detected anxieties, not lies.
The court system agreed with the scientific community in United States v. Frye
(1923) and ruled that polygraph results could not be presented in a court of law.
Nonetheless, the lie detector market expanded from police department to private
employers wanting to determine the source of employee theft, and then as a job
screening tool.
The heightened use of polygraphs by private employers in the 1980s, due to
escalation in Cold War espionage, created a backlash.
Research reviews conducted by the federal government’s Office of Technology
Assessment and the American Psychological Association both concluded that the
research results were mixed, with most polygraph tests prone to errors.
EMPLOYEE POLYGRAPH PROTECTION ACT OF 1988
These findings led to the passage of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988,
which prohibits most companies from using polygraph testing as a pre-employment tool.
oThe prohibition does not apply to federal, state, and local governments.
oPrivate sector exemptions to the law include pharmaceutical and related firms
that manufacture and distribute controlled substances, and armored car and
other security industry firms.
oThe federal government can require private subcontractors engaged in
national security issues to include polygraph tests as part of the job screening
process.
RECENT EVENTS
Polygraph testing has improved since the 1980s and, with a skilled operator, accuracy
rates range from 81-98 percent.
The modern polygraph collects data on at least three physiological systems associated
with honesty and lying: respiration, sweat gland activity, and blood pressure.
As these measures suggest, the polygraph still only detects for nervousness, not lying.
A new type of polygraph test being developed by brain researchers uses functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners.
oResearchers have isolated the section of the brain where lying occurs.
oWhen an individual answers truthfully, the brain image is consistent.
oWhen an individual lies, neurological activities can be detected because the
person is deciding not to tell the truth and then thinking about what would be
a believable lie to tell.
oThe initial research results suggest that fMRIs are more accurate than
traditional polygraph tests for detecting lies.
oThe cost of using MRIs for lie detection, however, is exorbitant
oLawsuits will likely be filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for
invasion of privacy.
Given polygraph inaccuracies, provide job candidates who contest the findings an
opportunity to explain any questionable results.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Ask students if all employers should be able to use lie detector test to verify the reliability of
information provided by job applicants. Why?
Put students with similar answers in small groups to better develop their reasons for supporting
or opposing the use of lie detector tests. Then debate/discuss the issue.
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER AND ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS SUMMARY
Chapter Question 1: What are the six-steps of an ethics job screen?
The most important factor for developing and reinforcing a high integrity work culture is
hiring ethical job applicants.
Ethics Screen Notice
Legal Ground Rules (Title VII of Civil Rights Act)
Behavior Information
Personality traits and related characteristics
Interview questions
Post-Interview tests (drug and polygraph)
If small business, issues just as important due to part-time employees
FOR DISCUSSION: Without referring to chapter notes, how do you determine which of two
highly qualified job candidate to hire?
Additional Question 1: What are the benefits of notifying job applicants about a company’s
ethics focus?
Industrial psychologist Benjamin Schneider’s Attraction-Selection-Attrition cycle (ASA)
highlights how individuals are attracted to organizations that reflect their values and goals,
organizations select applicants with personal attributes that fifit” the work culture, and then
individuals depart if the fit is inappropriate.
FOR DISCUSSION: Do you find Ben & Jerry’s social mission appealing? Why?
Chapter Question 2: Describe the importance of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and how
to determine if an organization’s job screening process results in disparate impacts.
For nearly two centuries, employers could use any selection criteria they desired. Explicit
discrimination, particularly against women, African-Americans, and the latest ethnic
immigrant group was widespread.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson pressured Congress to pass the far-reaching Civil Rights
Act. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits businesses from discriminating
among job applicants based on the person’s race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
FOR DISCUSSION: Examine a company’s gender and racial profile using the Disparate Impact
calculator at www.hr-software.net/EmploymentStatistics/DisparateImpact.htm.
FOR DISUCSSION: Should police and immigration officials give a more concerted effort in
locating and deporting the nation’s 12 million illegal Latino immigrants? Should emergency
room doctors and nurses turn in illegal immigrants using medical services?
Additional Question 2: What is Affirmative Action? Are Affirmative Action Plans ethical?
An organization may implement an affirmative action plan if its gender or racial profile
does not reflect the gender or racial profile of people living in the geographical region
qualified to perform the job task.
FOR DISCUSSION: Do you believe affirmative action plans are ethical or unethical? Why?
Additional Question 3: What legal obligations do job candidates have with the
organizations employing them?
Job candidates are legally required to respond truthfully to all job-related questions on
application forms and submitted materials, such as resumes.
FOR DISCUSSION: When applying of a job, have you ever misrepresented your positive
attributes, work experience, previous pay level, list of awards or distinctions, or some other
factor? Why? Was the item a determining factor in obtaining the job?
Chapter Question 3: What are six sources of behavioral information about a job
candidate’s ethics? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each information source?
Behavioral information about a job candidate’s ethics is more reliable than attitudinal survey
results or responses to hypothetical dilemmas.
Other sources are through personality tests, interview questions, and drug and polygraph
tests, all of which are examined in later questions.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have students role play HR managers and examine each other’s Facebook
profiles for positive character items and fired flag” items.
Chapter Question 4: Which of the fiBig Five” personality factors are the most relevant for
understanding a job candidate’s ethics?
Personality tests offer a much broad psychological understanding of the job candidate and
can identify characteristics associated with ethical or unethical behaviors.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have students complete the fiConscientious” survey (Exhibit 3.5) and
discuss the results.
Additional Question 4: What is Organizational Citizenship Behavior? What does it tell us
about job candidates?
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) refers to work-related helping behaviors that
go beyond normal job requirements, such as aiding others with job-related problems.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have students think about a part-time or full-time job or volunteer activity,
independently complete the fiOrganizational Citizenship Behavior” survey (Exhibit 3.6) and/or
the fiHelping Behavior” survey (Exhibit 3.7), and discuss results.
Additional Question 5: What two measures suggest that a job applicant might be prone to
unethical behavior?
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) is the belief that an individual’s particular group
membership (defined in terms of race, gender, religion, or ethnicity) is superior to other
groups. Researchers have found that high SDO scores are associated with racism and sexism.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have students independently complete the fiSocial Dominance
Orientation” survey (Exhibit 3.8) and discuss the results.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students if they have ever experienced any of the 6 bullying behaviors
listed in the chapter and how they responded to them.
Chapter Question 5: What types of questions would you ask job candidates during an
interview to understand their ethics? How would you know if the candidates are
responding truthfully?
The interviewer can ask for clarifications on the ethics-related information already gathered
and probe information gaps and inconsistencies.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have students role play HR managers and job applicants, and ask the job
applicants the five questions that appear in the chapter about responding to theft, sexual
harassment, etc., at previous job.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students to think about several times when they knowingly told a bold
lie or observed a friend doing so. Are there particular bodily tendencies and verbal tendencies
from the list above that they tend to exhibit in these high stress situations?
Additional Question 6: What type of drug test would you use on job applicants?
When appropriate, conduct drug and polygraph tests as a final test of the job finalist’s
integrity. Some jobs, such as those at a nuclear reactor facility, require these tests.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have you ever been tested for drug use? What was your experience like?
Chapter Question 6: Under what conditions can a job candidate be given a polygraph test?
Polygraphs, also known as lie detectors, can be used as a job screen by federal, state, and
local government agencies, as well as businesses, engaged in national security issues.
In 1980s, research reviews conducted by the federal government’s Office of Technology
Assessment and the American Psychological Association both concluded that the research
results were mixed, with most polygraph tests prone to errors.
FOR DISCUSSION: Should employers be able to use lie detector test to verify the reliability of
information provided by job applicants. Why?
