Page 49 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

Communication in organizations 38

2 Working through the resumé
(a) Education
• Why did the applicant choose a certain education?
• What were the achievements of the applicant in that education?
• Which subjects/majors did the applicant choose?
• What further ambitions, e.g. further studies, does the applicant have?
(b) Working experience including present employment
• What positions has the applicant held before the current one?
• What did the applicant like in those functions?
• What are the current tasks?
• Which tasks go well according to the applicant?
• Which tasks do not go well?
(c) Unclear issues
• Where are the ‘holes’ in the resumé?
3 Content of the position and task demands

• Which of the requirements does the applicant fulfil?
• Which are the weak and strong points?
• What are these based on?
• Can the applicant give examples of similar situations which he has experienced in the
past?

In addition to this last point, in personnel psychology it is a well-known law that
someone’s behaviour in the past is the best predictor for someone’s behaviour in the
future. That is to say one needs to get information about the behaviour of the applicant in
situations that are comparable with the ones he will find in the new working environment.
In order to obtain this information the selector can make use of the so-called STAR
model. The STAR model is constructed according to the following four questions:

S: What was the situation?

T: Which task did the applicant have in this situation?

A: What was the action of the applicant? What did he/she then do?

R: What was the result of this action?

The different themes mentioned above cannot always be taken separately. As the
conversation moves along one can skip parts that have already been covered before.

Basic attitude