The authors examined how an applicant's handshake influences hiring recommendations formed during the employment interview. A sample of 98 undergraduate students provided personality measures and participated in mock interviews during which the students received ratings of employment suitability. Five trained raters independently evaluated the quality of the handshake for each participant. Quality of handshake was related to interviewer hiring recommendations. Path analysis supported the handshake as mediating the effect of applicant extraversion on interviewer hiring recommendations, even after controlling for differences in candidate physical appearance and dress. Although women received lower ratings for the handshake, they did not on average receive lower assessments of employment suitability. Exploratory analysis suggested that the relationship between a firm handshake and interview ratings may be stronger for women than for men.

We examine the antecedents impacting interviewers' initial impressions of candidates formed during the rapport-building stage of the interview and subsequent evaluations of answers to highly structured interview questions. Ratings for 130 mock interview candidates reveal a strong relationship between interviewers' initial impression of the candidate and their evaluations of candidate responses to structured questions. These initial impressions correspond with candidate extraversion and verbal skill, controlling for job qualifications. Interviewers' initial impressions mediate the effect of candidate characteristics, relevant for some jobs more so than others, on later evaluations. Thus, initial impressions formed during rapport building appear to influence subsequent evaluations whether they are clearly job-relevant or not. These findings have important implications for the validity of structured interviews.

This study examines how coworker interactions and psychological collectivism impact an employee's likelihood of engaging in taking charge behavior. Work group contextual factors examined include team -member exchange (TMX), coworker support and psychological collectivism. Results show that TMX and psychological collectivism were significantly related to an individual's propensity to engage in taking charge behavior. This study highlights the importance that one's interactions with coworkers can have on an employee's willingness to engage in taking charge behavior, contributing an important new perspective to the literature on the contextual antecedents that drive an individual's behavioral efforts to bring about innovation and change. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.

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