Tripping over the culture talk in the structured selection interview process

This paper reports the ongoing development of a PhD study, challenging the current psychometrically driven ‘double talk’ paradigm of the Structured Selection Interview process. This paper uses the communication approach to introduce the holistic ‘triple talk’, which includes implicit cultural conservations. Literature review reveals the limited cultural awareness of the dominant theories about the structured selection interview process. Using the grounded theory approach, findings demonstrate a) the existence of culture talk between the interviewer and candidate, and b) the impact of the occurrence of cultural bias on the quality of the interview due to cultural misinterpretations. This opens discussion, for both practitioners and academics, for the need to develop cultural awareness in the interethnic selection process and to rethink the interview process to increase its effectiveness and equity.