Management 14th Edition by Leslie Rue,Lloyd Byars ,Nabil Ibrahim

Exercise 12

The Employment Interview
Jerry Sullivan is the underwriting manager for a large insurance company located in the Southwest. Recently, one of his best employees had given him two weeks' notice of her intention to leave. She was expecting a baby soon, and she and her husband had decided she was going to quit work and stay home with her new baby and her other two young children.
Today, Jerry was scheduled to start interviewing applicants for this job. The first applicant was Barbara Riley. She arrived at the company's office promptly at 9 AM, the time scheduled for her interview. Unfortunately, just before she arrived, Jerry received a phone call from his boss, who had just returned from a three-week vacation. He wanted Jerry to bring him up to date on what had been going on. The telephone conversation lasted 30 minutes. During that time, Barbara Riley was seated in the company's reception room.
At 9:30, Jerry went to the reception room and invited her into his office. The following conversation occurred:

This phone conversation goes on for almost 10 minutes. After hanging up, Jerry turns again to Barbara to resume the interview.

At that point, Barbara tells Jerry about her education, which includes an undergraduate degree in psychology and an MBA, which she will be receiving shortly. She explains to Jerry that this will be her first full-time job. Just then the phone rings, and Jerry's secretary tells him that his next interviewee is waiting.


Outline the inadequacies of this interview.