Journal article
Distressed and Distracted by COVID-19 During High-Stakes Virtual Interviews: The Role of Job Interview Anxiety on Performance and Reactions
Journal of applied psychology, Vol.106(8), pp.1103-1117
08/01/2021
DOI: 10.1037/apl0000943
PMID: 34423997
Abstract
Employers have increasingly turned to virtual interviews to facilitate online, socially distanced selection processes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is little understanding about the experience of job candidates in these virtual interview contexts. We draw fromEvent System Theory (Morgeson et al., 2015) to advance and test a conceptual model that focuses on a high-stress, high-stakes setting and integrates literatures on workplace stress with literatures on applicant reactions. We predict that when applicants ruminate about COVID-19 during an interview and have higher levels of COVID-19 exhaustion, they will have higher levels of anxiety during virtual interviews, which in turn relates to reduced interview performance, lower perceptions of fairness, and reduced intentions to recommend the organization. Further, we predict that three factors capturing COVID-19 as an enduring and impactful event (COVID-19 duration, COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 deaths) will be positively related to COVID-19 exhaustion. We tested our propositions with 8,343 job applicants across 373 companies and 93 countries/regions. Consistent with predictions, we found a positive relationship between COVID-19 rumination and interview anxiety, and this relationship was stronger for applicants who experienced higher (vs. lower) levels of COVID-19 exhaustion. In turn, interview anxiety was negatively related to interview performance, fairness perceptions, and recommendation intentions. Moreover, using a relevant subset of the data (n = 6,136), we found that COVID-19 duration and deaths were positively related to COVID-19 exhaustion. This research offers several insights for understanding the virtual interview experience embedded in the pandemic and advances the literature on applicant reactions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Distressed and Distracted by COVID-19 During High-Stakes Virtual Interviews: The Role of Job Interview Anxiety on Performance and Reactions
- Creators
- Julie M. McCarthy - University of TorontoDonald M. Truxillo - University of LimerickTalya N. Bauer - Portland State UniversityBerrin Erdogan - Portland State UniversityYiduo Shao - University of FloridaMo Wang - University of FloridaJoshua Liff - HireVue, South Jordan, UT, USCari Gardner - HireVue, South Jordan, UT, US
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of applied psychology, Vol.106(8), pp.1103-1117
- Publisher
- Amer Psychological Assoc
- DOI
- 10.1037/apl0000943
- PMID
- 34423997
- ISSN
- 0021-9010
- eISSN
- 1939-1854
- Number of pages
- 15
- Grant note
- 435-2015-0220 / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Lanzillotti-McKethan Eminent Scholar Endowment
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship
- Record Identifier
- 9984380533902771
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