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Individual Differences in Intention to Fake Job Interviews: Personality, Self-Monitoring, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2015

Candice Lester ,
Jeromy Anglim  and
Christie Fullarton
Candice Lester
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Jeromy Anglim*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Christie Fullarton
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Jeromy Anglim, School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, 3125 Victoria, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

When job applicants lie in job interviews, they can deprive a more honest candidate of a job and deprive an organisation of the best employees. To better understand job interview faking, the present study examined the effect of general dispositions and domain-specific beliefs on the intention to fake job interviews. A community sample of 313 participants completed measures of personality (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness) and self-monitoring, and a domain-specific measure of beliefs about faking job interviews based on the theory of planned behaviour, which measured attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Results indicated that the measure of attitudes was the strongest predictor of intention to fake. In line with the compatibility principle, the domain-specific measures based on the theory of planned behaviour correlated much more strongly with intentions to fake job interviews than did the general measures of personality or self-monitoring. Of the dispositional measures, lower conscientiousness, higher neuroticism, and higher self-monitoring was associated with greater intention to fake job interviews. The findings support a model whereby the effect of personality on intentions is partially mediated by domain-specific beliefs.

Keywords

theory of planned behaviourpersonalityfakingselection and recruitmentjob interviews
Type
Articles
Information
The Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology , Volume 8 , 2015 , e8
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2015 

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