ETHICAL DILEMMA IN MANAGEMENT

THE STRESS INTERVIEWS

Human Resource Management

• HRM includes all activities used to attract and retain employees and ensure their maximum productivity

• The HRM department is responsible for recruitment and selection.

• Recruitment is a method of establishing employment relationship.

INTERVIEW ?• The Interview process is a method of recruitment, a

selection tool used to attract appropriate job candidates to fill job vacancies.

• Interviews are the most common recruitment tool used hiring around the world from something very small as individuals for domestic work to key posts recruitment in multi-national organization.

• Different types of interviews are used for selection and hiring e.g. informal interviews, direct interviews, indirect, panel, group, behavior, and STRESS interviews.

Stress interviews:

• In a stress interview the interviewers deliberately lead applicants into a fall sense of security by making the candidate feel comfortable – then suddenly they change and on the attack creating a stressful situation, In order to observe how the candidates cope with sudden pressure and stress

• Imagine for a moment that you are doing exceptionally well in your job interview - until your interviewer asks you a question totally irrelevant to your discussion, such as

"How would you improve the design of the hockey stick?”

• While you fumble for an answer, inwardly you are thinking, "What is wrong with this person? Why would I be asked such an absurd question as part of a serious interview?"

• Such deliberate "stress question" are to get a glimpse of your personality and character - perhaps impatience or a glimpse of your creative abilities in coping with the unexpected.

Interviewers might deliberately put you in a difficult situation to see how you handle something non

textbook

Constructive element Why should stress interviews be used? Should interviewers be permitted to asses confidence on how

one reacts under sudden pressure?

• Stress interviews can be a good thing • Stress interviews might give an insight to a candidates personality

and character• By stress interview, It is easier for the company to determine the

attitude of an employee, which helps it identifying the suitable person for the job.

• As employee is an asset for the company, so the company needs to know if it had made the right choice and perhaps is paying to the right person who can cater with the extreme conditions and work under stress.

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• Every one can work under normal conditions but the problem arises when a person is put under extreme condition, it is then the true abilities of a person are known. There is a famous quote about this which says “Adversity causes a lot of people to break and others to break records”

• there are examples about it such as there are many cases when high scoring candidates have been rejected after the interview due to there disability of not catering with the stress.

Advantages

• Stress interviews are appropriate for certain types of jobs such as public safety and customer complaint-handling.

• The stress interviewing technique is typically used for positions in which the job-seeker will be facing stress on the job e.g. when dealing with a lot of people such as domestic sugar mills, in businesses where time to time panic situations arise.

• How good are you at keeping your cool under pressure? This is exactly what employers are attempting to figure out during the stress interview. It may seem like cruel and unusual treatment, but if you pass this grueling test, the job is probably yours for the taking.

• So what happens during this type of interview? Any range of odd behavior, from being held in the waiting room for an excessive amount of time before the interviewer greets you to being asked offensive questions to being met with long silences or cold glares. Verbal abuse is even common. So what is the point of all of this? Simply to see if you can handle a difficult company culture and a potentially stressful work environment. Do you have what it takes? Keep these tips in mind:

• Stress interviews are not meant to hurt your feelings. They are just meant to test your mental strength.

• Keep your main message in mind, and don’t let the interviewer shake you from your goal of expressing that point.

• Stay calm. No matter what happens, do not respond with rudeness.

DECONSTRUCTIVE ELMENT

• Stress interviews can be brutal!

Deconstructive Element

• Those with severe personality disorders may also do well

• Due to stress in interviews a person can face anxiety

• Increased heart rate, high blood pressure and stomach cramps can also effect the person.

• An element of unpredictability in choosing the correct person.

• It may lower self esteem.

• May cause emotional distress

• Due to panic the person can get confused and may not be able to answer appropriately.

Should managers advocate the use of an activity that could

possibly get out of hand? • In some cases stress question might get to personal offending

the candidate.• The atmosphere might get unpleasant

• Its advised that managers should not go to extreme lengths asking to personal or offensive questions, offending the candidate or making the situation confrontational.

• As this is also unethical

CONCLUSION• As discussed earlier stress interviews can be benificial• Stress interviews are not meant to hurt your feelings. They are just meant

to test your mental strength. • Keep your main message in mind, and don’t let the interviewer shake you

from your goal of expressing that point. • Stay calm. No matter what happens, do not respond with rudeness• how ever they could also lead to confrontation and have a destructive

effect.• The best remedy is balance• In to days highly competitive markets firms need to acquire dynamic

individuals who can go beyond their job specification and handle time to time panic and stress related to work, and stress interviews are a good tool.

• The interviewers also should try not to make the stress interviews a brutal experience for the candidate, and remain within ethical limits