Effective Listening, Interviewer State of Consciousness, and a Mental Exercise

Abstract

Is there a best state of consciousness for selection interviewing? And are mental exercises — analogous to an athlete's ‘warming up’ just before an event — a practical way of achieving or enhancing it? This paper suggests some preliminary answers to these questions. It is in three parts. The first is a discussion of (a) effective listening and rapport and (b) a calm‐alert state of consciousness and ways of developing or enhancing it. Second, a mental exercise is described. It has, in theory', several attractive quantities, e.g. speed, low cost, and effects which wear off gradually and without habituation. Third, a pilot experiment on the exercise is evaluated, emphasising the many methodological problems in this area, e.g. selection of subjects, setting of the experiment and expectancy effects.

Citation

Bayne, R. (1980), "Effective Listening, Interviewer State of Consciousness, and a Mental Exercise", Personnel Review, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 30-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055401