Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

4-2024

Abstract

In assessment and selection, organizations often include interpersonal interactions because they provide insights into candidates’ interpersonal skills. These skills are then typically assessed via one-shot, retrospective assessor ratings. Unfortunately, the assessment of interpersonal skills at such a trait-like level fails to capture the richness of how the interaction unfolds at the behavioral exchange level within a role-play assessment. This study uses the lens of interpersonal complementarity theory to advance our understanding of interpersonal dynamics in role-play assessment and their effects on assessor ratings. Ninety-six MBA students participated in four different flash role-plays as part of diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses. Apart from gathering assessor ratings and criterion measures, coders also conducted a fine-grained examination of how the behavior of the two interaction partners (i.e., MBA students and roleplayers) unfolded at the moment-to-moment level via the Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) measurement tool. In all role-plays, candidates consistently showed mutual adaptations in line with complementarity principles: Affiliative behavior led to affiliative behavior, whereas dominant behavior resulted in docile, following behavior and vice versa. For affiliation, mutual influence also occurred in that both interaction partners’ temporal trends in affiliation were entrained over time. Complementarity patterns were significantly related to ratings of in situ (role-playing) assessors but not to ratings of ex situ (remote) assessors. The effect of complementarity on validity was mixed. Overall, this study highlights the importance of going beyond overall ratings to capture behavioral contingencies such as complementarity patterns in interpersonal role-play assessment.

Keywords

Interpersonal complementarity theory, assessment center, role plays, continuous rating assessments, asynchronous video formats

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Journal of Applied Psychology

Volume

109

Issue

4

First Page

534

Last Page

550

ISSN

0021-9010

Identifier

10.1037/apl0001160

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Embargo Period

9-26-2023

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/doi/10.1037/apl0001160

Download

Share

COinS