ISSN: 2222-6990
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Face-to-face interaction is a process of personal interaction in expressing opinions and answering questions, as in job interviews to evaluate the suitability of interviewees in a hiring process. Although educational institutions in Malaysia have introduced measures to provide fresh graduates with the required interactive competences, yet there are still incapable of carrying out proper interactions in job interviews. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate the use of politeness strategies in job interviews. Twenty fresh graduates and five human resource managers from prominent outsourcing organisations participated in the study. Job interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed qualitatively to identify politeness strategies used in the interviews. The findings show that two positive politeness forms were identified: “paying attention and focusing on interviewer’s concerns, requirements, wishes or gains”, and “constructing/emphasizing shared positions to build commonality”. One negative strategy was found, “asking for explanation or repeating”. The findings further revealed that most of fresh graduates were not able to carry out smooth interactions and unable to use impression management tactics with the interviewers during the job interviews. They study may contribute significantly for the course module by integrating politeness strategies in job interviews on face-to-face interactions in employment programs.
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In-Text Citation: (Arumugam et al., 2021)
To Cite this Article: Arumugam, N., Krishnan, I. A., Mello, G. De, Ibrahim, M. N. A. bin, & Suppiah, P. C. (2021). Malaysian Fresh Graduates’ Performance in Job Interviews: Politeness Strategies. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(9), 975–990.
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