The issue concerning what an interviewer needs to know in order to have a full knowledge of interviewing will be addressed through the use of a Knowledge Structure Map (KSM). Investigating knowledge areas using Knowledge Structure Maps is a tried and tested methodology that has proven very useful in a broad range of knowledge studies. Initially, a KSM for interviewing will be shown and a brief description of data that is captured along with the structure will be described. This will allow the knowledge area to be considered more objectively by reference to the map and the information that an associated analytical tool KST can provide.
Figure 1 shows the full KSM that has been derived for interviewing. This is a little contrived because it only uses one expert rather than several as the source of information about the knowledge and the full rigour of the methodology has not been used. However, the map should be of some value and will certainly highlight the knowledge area and because it is made clear and explicit, will open the details up for discussion and challenge.
Figure 1: A complete KSM for the interviewing knowledge area, shown in the tool KST.
Figure 1 is too small to show any detail. It is presented mainly to show the extent of the knowledge area uncovered and the context that the KSM has within the software tool used in its elicitation and analysis (KST – Knowledge Study Tool). The issue addressed by this study was:
What knowledge is needed in order to know how to interview people effectively?
Each box or node on the map represents a particular piece of knowledge. The links connecting boxes show learning dependency. This structure implies that links to knowledge nodes (say C, D and E) below a main node (say A), imply that it is necessary to already understand C, D and E before it is possible to fully understand A. In other words, C, D and E are prerequisite knowledge of the knowledge area A.
There are also four parameters associated with each knowledge node. These are given numeric values between 0 and 10 by moving the four sliders show in the lower part of figure 1.
I do not intend to provide more detail here because this topic is discussed in other accessible material.
Table 1 provides a full list of all of the knowledge nodes from the KSM along with a brief description for each.
| Knowledge | Definition |
|---|---|
| Alleviate concentration fatigue | How to help people to regain concentration. |
| Alleviate distractions | How to remove or reduce distraction either in advance of an interview or during, if a distraction arises. |
| Assess functional requirements of interview | How to identify the feature requirements for an interview such as number of people, active participants and observers, requirement for equipment etc. |
| Assess location features | How to identify and consider the features of a location that will influence the progress of an interview |
| Broaden topic | How to identify the broad range of things that are associated with an area or concept. |
| causes of stress in interviews | The common causes of stress in interviews |
| Challenge the problem | Use questions to make sure that the discussion has really identified the real problem and not just a part of it or a side effect of it. |
| Combat discussion bottlenecks | How to detect and overcome a barrier or stalling point in a discussion |
| Combat discussion fatigue | Know how to move a discussion forward if it has become stalled in a particular area |
| Communicate with others | How to communicate with other people in order to achieve a specific goal. Being able to assess the best way of talking to a person based on an assessment of that persons character. |
| Compare & Contrast | Know how to match and compare features from several entities and identify similarities of form or function and identify contrasts. |
| Construct logical statements | Know how to create concise simple and logically correct statements |
| Decompose a task | Being able to break a complex task down into more manageable components that when reassembled address the initial complex task. |
| Decomposition | The meaning and methods of decomposition as applied to a concept |
| Deductive reasoning | How to deduce subsequent information, questions etc based on sound reasoning given the information at hand. |
| Deepen topic | How to explore a topic by delving into it or some particular aspect of it. |
| Define goals | Know how to define a goal or intended outcome of an action or process. To ask why am I doing this, for instance. Also to understand the reason for the goal that is to be defined (why do I need this goal). |
| Describe things | How to create a mental image in others that represents the object, situation or concept being studied. |
| Effects of stress in interviews | How stress could affect the goals of an interview |
| Electronic options | How to use a full range of electronic options and associated software. |
| Electronic recording methods | Knowing what electronic recording methods are available and how to use them, including audio and video tools. |
| Estimate similarity | Consider separate items and estimate how alike these items are. |
| Estimate task duration | How to roughly estimate how long a task will take. |
| Evidence | That which makes anything evident; means of proving an unknown or disputed fact; support (eg for a belief) - bookshelf Also to know what constitutes evidence and what may simply be opinion. |
| Explain concepts | How to assess the context and relevance of information to concepts. How to explain a concept within a context and how to ensure that the concept is understood by the listener. |
| Favourable environments for interview | The sort of environments and environmental features that are favourable for interviews and why the features are favourable |
| Focus in interviews | The meaning of focus in an interview and degree of focus |
| Follow reasoning chain | Be able to work out options that follow on from a situation or state and understand the links between the current thread and previous discussion |
| Formal elicitation methods | Know more formal or controlled methods of interview or methods for specific parts of interviewing. |
| Formulate question | How to phrase a question clearly and concisely |
| Generalise | To make general; to include under a general term; to reduce to a general form; to comprehend as a particular case within a wider concept, proposition, definition, etc; to represent or endow with the common characters of a group without the special characters of any one member; to bring to general use or knowledge; to infer inductively. |
| Grammar | Know the essential parts of grammar that are required for interviewing. |
| Identify audio visual clues | Know that certain audio and visual clues often introduce significant points or separate different topic areas etc. and know what these are. |
| Identify distractions | What things will cause or could cause distraction in an interview |
| Identify topic drift | Be able to decide when a discussion has gone too far away from the topic in question to reveal useful information. |
| Information discovery interview | The standard format of a general interview where the information to be elicited is not a fixed kind and the interviewee may not be an expert but a witness or a person whose opinion is being sought etc. |
| Interpret response to questions | How to extract the meaning from an answer. |
| Interview | What knowledge is needed in order to know how to interview people effectively? |
| Interview environment | Understand the requirements and features of an interview environment and what factors determine these |
| Interview Function | The standard reasons for holding an interview and any special purpose types as appropriate. |
| Interview methodology | How to carry out interview support methods such as reparatory grid, card sort, laddering etc. Also how to ask questions and respond to answers in order to develop an interview. |
| Interview Objectives | Understand the possible objectives for an interview and how to select or identify the correct one. |
| Interview stress | A sound understanding of what stress is and how stress relates to an interview situation. |
| Interview theory | The types, styles, reasons etc there are for interviews of many types and how styles etc are implemented. |
| Introduce a topic | The best way to set the scene for a topic to be discussed. This involves knowing the topic boundaries and foundations and knowing the level at which it will be discussed. |
| Justification for belief | vindication; absolution; a plea showing sufficient reason for an action - Bookshelf Also to know how strong a justification may be. |
| Knowledge capture interview | The standard format(s) for a knowledge capture interview |
| KSM Interview | The standard format for a KSM interview |
| Listen attentively | How to concentrate and multitask and how to regain a thread after note taking. Really about listening and understanding what is being said. |
| Maintain discussion focus | Know how to keep a discussion on track, relevant and in pursuit of the goal of the discussion. |
| Maintain topic | know how to investigate a topic, follow lines of reasoning, get out of bottlenecks etc. |
| Make connections | Identify and clarify links between data items and general information and comment |
| Manage available time | Understanding what is to be done and how long things take. Being able to allocate your own resource to the tasks identified and if necessary to know how to avoid being diverted and sidetracked. If unplanned situations arise, know how to reorganise a schedule to cover the most urgent needs. |
| Match strategy to situation | Identify the best strategy given the situation, time available, participant views etc. |
| Material and equipment requirement | Materials and equipment that can aid note taking including pen and paper, audio recorder, computer with appropriate software, and other electronic devises. |
| Meaning of stress | What the concept stress means particularly in the context of interviews |
| Note taking methods | Methods of note taking including diagrammatical, graphical, audio, text based summaries, bullet points, tabular methods etc. |
| Options for materials and equipment | The full range of options that are available for note taking |
| Organise interview | Understand the needs of the interview and the people that will participate in it and be able to mach these needs with desirable environmental features. |
| Overcome discussion bottleneck | How to move a discussion on through a stalling point and either pick up a thread of progress or decide when a natural end is reached. |
| Paper based options | How to use pen and paper to good effect in note taking |
| Pose question | know how to present a question to an interviewee, in what manner etc. |
| Prioritising work | How to assess the priority of tasks within the context of the current environment. How to reorganise priority as new events occur. |
| Questioning methods | know how to interview by using questions and answers |
| Reasons for action | What the reasons are for defining an action or a goal. Why the goal is needed, what will the outcome actually achieve. |
| Recognise concentration fatigue | The signs that indicate that people are unable to concentrate properly on current events. |
| Recognise discussion bottleneck | How to identify when a discussion is perhaps circular, drifting or in general not making progress. |
| Recognise features | Being able to identify what collection of objects represent a feature of a situation or environment or what features an object is composed of. |
| Recognise goal | Understand what constitutes a goal or an outcome. |
| Recognise redundancy | How to notice when similar things take on essentially the same meaning or make the same point. |
| Record information | How to record the information revealed during the interview and the knowledge and usage of appropriate materials and equipment. |
| Recruitment interview | The standard format for a recruitment interview |
| Schedule activities | How to schedule activities and how to organise simultaneous resource availability |
| See problems in different ways | Know how to consider a problem or situation in several different ways by looking at the problem from a variety of perspectives including from the perspective of different people, customers, management, etc. |
| Semantics | The area of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words; the meaning attached to words or symbols (computing). |
| Signal words | Signal words are words often used by a speaker to introduce some particular or important point. |
| Sources of distraction | Sources of distraction that are typical and how to consider what distractions are possible and likely at a particular location at a specific time and know what to do about these |
| Strategies to explore topics | Know of different ways that a topic can be explored. |
| Structure in interviews | The meaning of structure in an interview and degree of structure |
| Summarise | How to capture the main points of something and present it briefly. |
| Take notes | Create a written or diagrammatical record of a discussion that are brief and capture the essential components of a conversation. |
| Techniques to improve attention | know several techniques to improve attention and attention span including practice, active thought and the creation of mental models etc. |
| Topic depth & breadth | The difference between and the features of studying a topic in a broad way and in a deep way. |
| Topic exploration | Methods of exploring a topic in discussion so that all relevant aspects of it are addressed in as much detail as the goal of the discussion requires |
| Truth | A faithful adherence to nature; an established fact; true belief; known facts, knowledge - bookshelf |
| Types of interview | The meaning of general interview types involving structure and focus |
| Uncertainty assignment | Methods that help to express uncertainty in a useable way, such as repertory grid. |
| Understand what attention is | Know what it is to pay attention and what attention means and how difficult it can be |
| Use alternative perspective | How to take a look at a situation from a different viewing point and understand why this can be a useful strategy. |
| Use alternative strategy | The exploration of a topic in a meeting or interview will be carried out using a particular approach. It is necessary to know how to change this approach during the meeting if necessary. |
| Use of materials and equipment | How to use all of the materials and equipment that could be used for not taking |
| Value assignment | Methods that help to assign values to attributes, such as card sort |
The knowledge structure map for Interview contains 94 nodes and 116 links. There are five major sub knowledge areas shown on the map at layer 1 (the second layer down from the top node). The five main knowledge sub areas are:
Brief explanations of the meaning of each of these can be found in table 1.
The largest knowledge sub area on the map is ‘topic exploration’ (53% of all map knowledge is also part of this area). This knowledge is clearly central to any interview technique because it is the thing that is the active part of achieving the goals of an interview.
Interview theory covers 40% of the knowledge area and is also clearly important here. Many people that carry out interviews may not even consider this knowledge area as something they should know before they carry out interviews. Much of this knowledge area related to theory identifies things that would probably be used only occasionally. The main method identified is ‘questioning methods’ and this has also been identified as very important. It is also 13th in the most risky knowledge table, just outside the top 10% identified in table 3 below.
There are two knowledge areas that are highly integrated with the whole map. These are:
This is interesting because the two areas together describe the dialogue that is an essential feature of interviews. It should be noted however that neither of these knowledge areas is simply. People do have difficulty in listening attentively even though they may deny this. People may not be that good at describing things clearly, unambiguously and concisely which is what this knowledge area calls for.
| Node Name | Size | %Size | Num-Params | Num-arcs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interview | 94 | 100 | 372 | 116 |
| Topic exploration | 51 | 54 | 200 | 65 |
| Maintain topic | 49 | 52 | 192 | 63 |
| Maintain discussion focus | 42 | 45 | 164 | 55 |
| Interview theory | 39 | 41 | 152 | 46 |
| Recognise features | 33 | 35 | 128 | 71 |
| Summarise | 33 | 35 | 128 | 69 |
| Construct logical statements | 32 | 34 | 124 | 72 |
| Describe things | 32 | 34 | 124 | 72 |
| Grammar | 31 | 33 | 120 | 72 |
| Interview methodology | 31 | 33 | 120 | 40 |
| Semantics | 31 | 33 | 120 | 72 |
| Questioning methods | 30 | 32 | 116 | 48 |
| Estimate similarity | 28 | 30 | 108 | 65 |
| Recognise redundancy | 28 | 30 | 108 | 65 |
| Communicate with others | 27 | 29 | 104 | 46 |
| Decompose a task | 27 | 29 | 104 | 64 |
| Handle conflicting views | 27 | 29 | 104 | 36 |
| Organise interview | 27 | 29 | 104 | 33 |
| Record information | 27 | 29 | 104 | 34 |
| Combat discussion bottlenecks | 26 | 28 | 100 | 40 |
| Generalise | 26 | 28 | 100 | 55 |
| Listen attentively | 26 | 28 | 100 | 52 |
| Take notes | 26 | 28 | 100 | 33 |
Table 2 provides a list of the knowledge nodes that are most centrally connected on the map. The top values here will be the main knowledge areas since these are connected to most other knowledge nodes. However, the two nodes in question are much lower down the map and therefore cannot have large prerequisite structures. In spite of this, ‘describe things’ at layer 9 of 11 connects to 34% of the map in a pre and post requisite direction and ‘listen attentively’ at layer 7 of 11 connects to 28% of the map. This shows their key role in the knowledge structure.
| Node Name | Import | Diff | Study-exp | Known-by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat discussion bottlenecks | 8 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Listen attentively | 9 | 8 | 9 | 3 |
| Truth | 6 | 9 | 8 | 1 |
| Maintain discussion focus | 8 | 7 | 9 | 2 |
| See problems in different ways | 7 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Topic exploration | 9 | 8 | 7 | 2 |
| Analyse | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 |
| Manage available time | 7 | 7 | 9 | 2 |
| Construct logical statements | 8 | 7 | 7 | 1 |
| Use alternative perspective | 6 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
Table 3 shows the top 10% or so of the knowledge from the map in order of highest risk. Risk is computed in a logical way using the parameter values provided by experts. Here, ‘listen attentively’ is one of the highest risk knowledge areas. This combined with other evidence seems to suggest that this knowledge area should be given some serious attention.
Time management is also identified as a knowledge area in the high risk category. From the description of ‘Manage available time’ or time management provided in table 1, it can be seen that this has been defined (table 1) as an active and rather complex piece of knowledge. This knowledge, if it is really known, is often applied poorly. This may be because those that apply the knowledge need to actively take responsibility for the time that an interview or meeting should take and have the strength and conviction to control events that would adversely affect the desired control.
Time management is considered to be one of the most important knowledge areas within the area of interview organisation. This area is not considered to be at high risk in general but does contain some poorly understood knowledge such as that associated with interview stress. Within the context of this work it is not the function of an interview to create stress but to avoid it.
It would really be valid to conclude that each of the knowledge areas from table 3 should be given attention and anyone wishing to improve their ability at interviewing should address these issues. One way could be to think of exercise that would help a person to improve in each area.
Knowing how to summarise can be seen from the map to be one of the most fundamental knowledge areas that influences almost all other major knowledge sub sections. The position of this knowledge on the map shows that it concerns knowing how to summarise rather than being able to do it. However, this knowledge is really essential if a person is to become able to summarise well. The map shows that a complete knowledge of how to listen attentively involves knowing how to summarise. Summary is one of the things that helps a listener to play an active role in the listening process. Passive listening is not usually successful.