Commissive Speech Act in Job Interview: How Applicants Depict Good Leader Characters in Response to Situational Questions

Farida Indri Wijayanti, Djatmika Djatmika, Sumarlam Sumarlam, FX. Sawardi

Abstract

In job interview, applicants are occasionally asked to visualize an imaginery job scenario and explain what they will do in that situation. Similarly, in interview and public test of Corruption Eradication Comission (KPK), leader candidates were asked such kind of situational questions. Their selection of responses for such question will reveal who they are. They can portray not only the job competencies but also good characters in leadership. Data in the form of commissive utterances were collected from interviews involving leader candidates of KPK obtained from the Ministry of State Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia's Youtube channel. In the corpus, promising acts were identified as the most-used commissive speech act in response to situational questions. Female candidates more frequently implemented commissive than male. There were three forms of commissive speech act in the interview test, namely: making a promise, expressing capability, and intent. With commissive speech act, the finding further revealed that both female and male candidate leaders showed elemen characters such as passionate, demonstrative initiative, strive for excellence, collegial, continuous learner, transparent, socially responsible, accepts consequences, brave, confident, purposive, future-oriented, optimistic, and creative.

Keywords

commissive; job interview; gender; leader character; situational questions

Full Text:

PDF

References

Al-Bantany, N. F. (2013). The Use of Commissive Speech Acts and Its Politeness Implication: A Case of Banten Gubernatorial Candidate Debate. Passage, 1(2), 21-34.

Akinkurolere, S. O., & Ariyo, K. S. (2015). Speech Act Features of Select Extracts in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God: Leadership Perspective. Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, 139-145. doi: 10.9734/BJESBS/2015/13323

Andrasari, L. (2017). Tindak Tutur Komisif dalam Debat Pilkada Kabupaten Sambas Tahun 2015. Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pembelajaran Khatulistiwa, 6(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/jppk.v6i4.19835

Archer, W., & Davidson, J. (2008), Graduate employability: The Views of Employers. London: Council for Industry and Higher Education.

Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge University Press.

Bruttel, L., & Fischbacher, U. (2013). Taking the Initiative. What Characterizes Leaders?. European Economic Review, 64, 147-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.08.008

Campion, M. A., Palmer, D. K., & Campion, J. E. (1997). A review of Structure in the Selection Interview. Personnel psychology, 50(3), 655-702. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1997.tb00709.x

Foels, R., Driskell, J. E., Mullen, B., & Salas, E. (2000). The Effects of Democratic Leadership on Group Member Satisfaction: An Integration. Small Group Research, 31, 676-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640003100603

Habiburrahman, H., Abd Gani, H. A., & Setiawan, I. (2020). Strategi Tindak Tutur Komisif dalam Kampanye Politik Pilkada Serentak 2018. Jurnal Ilmiah Telaah, 5(1), 1-7. doi: https://doi.org/10.31764/telaah.v5i1.1683

Herfani, F. K., & Manaf, N. A. (2020). Tindak Tutur Komisif dan Ekspresif dalam Debat Capres-Cawapres pada Pilpres 2019. Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 8(1), 36-51. https://doi.org/10.24036/81088710

Holmes, J. (2006) Gendered Talk atWork: Constructing Social Identity through Work Place Interaction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Hornby, A. S. (2015). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: International Student’s Edition. New 9th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jiang, F. (2013). Discourse Analysis of Job Interview Conversation: What and How to Proceed in Interaction. English for Specific Purposes World, 14. Retrieved from: http://www.philologician.com/Articles_41/Doc/Conversation_Jiang.pdf

Kanter, R. M. (1977). Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-990. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-4754-5_5

K. B. B. I. (2021). Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI). Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan

Kim, H. (2013). Glass Fence Thicker than Glass Ceiling: The Puzzling Gaps of Women’s Leadership in Korea. In Culture and Gender in Leadership (pp. 253-274). doi: 10.1057/9781137311573_13

Levashina, J., Hartwell, C. J., Morgeson, F. P., & Campion, M. A. (2014). The Structured Employment Interview: Narrative and Quantitative Review of the Research Literature. Personnel Psychology, 67(1), 241-293. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12052

Lippa, R. A. (2005). Gender, Nature, and Nurture. New Jersey: Routledge.

Lipovsky, C. (2010). Negotiating Solidarity: A Social-Linguistic Approach to Job Interviews. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Massoudi, A. H. (2017). The Influence of Manager’s Politeness on Subordinates Motivation. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 19(7), 78-90. doi: 10.9790/487X-1907034956

Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A.M. (1992). Analsisi Data Kualitatif (T.R. Rohidi, Trans). Jakarta: UI-Press

Muktadir, A. (2016). Aneka Implikatur yang Terkandung dalam Tindak Tutur Novel “Ketika Derita Mengabadikan Cinta”. Jurnal PGSD: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar, 9(3), 340-346.

Nabila, Z., Mujiyanto, J., & Rukmini, D. (2021). The Comparison of Commisive Speech Acts by Trump and Warren Presidential Candidate Viewed from Gender Differences. English Education Journal, 11(1), 114-122. doi: 10.15294/EEJ.V11I1.41899

Norman, S. M., Avolio, B. J., & Luthans, F. (2010). The Impact of Positivity and Transparency on Trust in Leaders and Their Perceived Effectiveness. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 350-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.002

Peterson, H. (2018). From “Goal-Orientated, Strong and Decisive Leader” to “Collaborative and Communicative Listener”. Gendered Shifts in Vice-Chancellor Ideals, 1990–2018. Education Sciences, 8(2), 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8020090

Powell, G. N. (1990). One More Time: Do Female and Male Manager Differ. The Executive, August, 68-75. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1990.4274684

Prayitno, H. J. (2009). Perilaku Tindak Tutur Berbahasa Pemimpin dalam Wacana Rapat Dinas: Kajian Pragmatik dengan Pendekatan Jender. Kajian Linguistik dan Sastra, 21(2), 132-146.

Ramalingam, S., Krishnan, I. A., Suppiah, P. C., & Maruthai, E. (2020). Word Order in Job Interviews: The Malaysian Perspective. Asian Journal of University Education, 16(3), 148-168. https://doi.org/10.24191/ajue.v16i3.11080

Ramayanti, I. (2016). Investigating Male and Female Leadership Styles and Politeness in the Indonesian Workplace. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Canberra, Australia. Retrieved from https:// researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/files/33 690264/file

Santosa, R. (2021). Dasar-Dasar Metode Penelitian Kualitatif Kebahasaan. Surakarta: UNS Press

Santoso, B. W. J. (2013). Kode dan Kesantunan dalam Rapat Dinas Berperspektif Gender dan Jabatan. Lingua, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.15294/lingua.v9i2.2768

Schnurr, S. (2009). Leadership Discourse at Work: Interactions of Humour, Gender and Workplace Culture. Palgrave Macmillan

Seijts, G., Gandz, J., Crossan, M., & Reno, M. (2015). Character Matters: Character Dimensions’ Impact on Leader Performance and Outcomes. Organizational Dynamics, 44(1), 65-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2014.11.008

Seijts, G., Crossan, M., & Carleton, E. (2017). Embedding Leader Character into HR Practices to Achieve Sustained Excellence. Organizational Dynamics, 46(1), 30-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.02.001

Seijts, G. H., & Gandz, J. (2018). Transformational Change and Leader Character. Business Horizons, 61(2), 239-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.11.005

Singh, P. (2013). A Collegial Approach in Understanding Leadership as a Social Skill. International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER), 12(5), 489-502. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v12i5.7824

Siswana, S., & Sriyanto, W. (2020). Speech Act Gender Based (Study Case: Commentators’ Responses of Donald Trump Speech). ISLLAC: Journal of Intensive Studies on Language, Literature, Art, and Culture, 4(2), 152-161.

Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. New York: : Holt, Reinhart and Winston.

Surtikanti, M.W., Djatmika, Santosa, R., Kristina, D. (in press). Proposing versus arguing: Probing boosters’ functions in presidential debate genre. International Journal of Society, Culture & Language.

Tan, H. K., Teoh, M. L., & Tan, S. K. (2016). Beyond ‘Greeting’and ‘Thanking’: Politeness in Job Interviews. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 22(3).

Thorgren, S., & Omorede, A. (2018). Passionate Leaders in Social Entrepreneurship: Exploring an African context. Business & Society, 57(3), 481-524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650315612070

Van De Mieroop, D., & Schnurr, S. (2018). Candidates’ Humour and the Construction of Co-Membership in Job Interviews. Language & Communication, 61, 35-45.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.01.002

Yule, G. (2006). Pragmatik. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20961/ijsascs.v6i1.69931

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.