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The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual model of the standard employment interview that practitioners may use to improve their interview skills and the accuracy of their selection decisions.

The dynamics of each discrete stage of the interview model are supported by empirical findings from the research literature on employment interviewing.

An interview transitions through four naturally occurring stages: the initial impression formed in the first few seconds when the candidate and interviewer first lay eyes on one another; a rapport building stage of several minutes to help each party settle in; the body of the interview in which job skills and culture-fit are assessed; and the close, when the interviewer asks if the candidate has any questions about the job or company.

Implications for research include providing solutions to the problem of difficult-to-control personal biases (especially during Stages 1 and 2), as well as conducting holistic studies that include the factors that influence decision making across all four stages to determine their relative weights.

The four stage model can be used to design interview training programs. By dividing the interview into discrete stages, practitioners can become aware of the pitfalls within each stage and use evidence-based findings to correct mistakes.

Companies and job candidates benefit alike when selection is based on job skills and person-organization fit rather than on how well job candidates can interview.

This is the first paper to propose that employment interviews move through four discrete stages and to support the assertion with findings from secondary empirical research.

The Netherlands, although a small country with few natural resources, is a major industrial power in the West, and operates some of the world’s largest multinationals. To understand more about human resource management (HRM) practices in this country we used a structured interview format containing questions about selection techniques, equal employment opportunity, performance appraisal, motivational techniques, and participative decision making, and we interviewed 30 HRM professionals. Results show that creative research‐based HRM practices are helping organizations to adapt to global economic challenges, but it has not been easy to balance the needs of employers with those of employees in a country with a history of workers’ rights.

Data from a 1989 survey of over 600 middle‐level managers in a large Canadian corporation were analysed to examine the characteristics of jobs held by career‐family and career‐primary men and women. Hypotheses were developed based on human capital theory, statistical discrimination theory, and gender role congruence theory. Examining career outcomes suggested that participation in household labour had a significantly more negative association with men's hierarchical level than with women's. Implications for theory and suggestions for research are discussed.

In the article he discusses the importance to the personnel profession of the management of working women with reference to the position of women at work in Britain today, how gender inequalities arose, and how the position needs to change through this decade. The issue of child care is addressed, and women's stress, coping and health reviewed.