Although questions represent one of the primary means of information exchange in the employment interview, empirical research exploring interview questioning has been an infrequent object of review and interpretation. This article attempts to alleviate this situation by providing a cross-disciplinary review and analysis of research related to interviewer and applicant questioning processes in the employment interview. Toward this end, our literature analysis is organized into three primary sections: (a) constraints and antecedent factors associated with asking questions in the interview; (b) characteristics of interview questions; and (c) the consequences or outcomes of questioning. Within each of these sections findings pertaining to interviewer and applicant question usage are described and critiqued. Subsequently, we discuss pragmatic implications for interview practice that can be extrapolated from our analysis of the literature. Finally, in the last section we present a number of conclusions concerning the “state of the art” of research exploring questioning in the employment interview, and we suggest directions for future research in the area.
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