Reinventing Strategies of Oral Examination in Taiwan Civil Service Recruitment

• DOI: 10.1177/0091026013484569
• Date: 01 June 2013
• Author: José Chiu-C. Chen,Ting-Ming Chen,Min-Hsiu Chiang
• Published date: 01 June 2013
• Subject Matter: Articles

Public Personnel Management

42(2) 293 –309

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026013484569

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Article

Reinventing Strategies of

Oral Examination in Taiwan

Civil Service Recruitment

José Chiu-C. Chen1, Min-Hsiu Chiang2,

and Ting-Ming Chen3

Abstract

In Taiwan, both the academic and practitioner have noticed the disputation of high-

rank civil service recruitment is getting worse due to the oral exam method. In this

article, there are two research questions that need to be answered. One of them is,

“How does the oral exam influence the test scores and to what degree?” The other

is, “How can the oral exam be improved?” To answer these questions, the research

methods of content analysis, Delphi technique, and in-depth interview were adopted.

To provide persuasive evidence to disclose the serious problems of oral examination,

our research chose four kinds of civil service exams as research objectives. The

results of our research not only demonstrate measures for the reform of oral exam

assessment but also reveal characteristics of oral exam assessment in Taiwan. Through

these results, we get a better understanding of the stakeholders’ perceptions about

oral examinations. Besides, it is helpful for the emergence of reinventing strategies.

Keywords

civil service recruitment, oral examination, structured interview

Behind the Scene

Every year in Taiwan, about 60 national civil service exams are held; all examina-

tions have both traditional written exams as well as oral exams that make up for about

a third of the examination. According to oral examination guidelines, the oral

1Tunghai University, Taichung City, Taiwan, Republic of China

2National Chengchi University, Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China

3National Central University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, Republic of China

Corresponding Author:

Ting-Ming Chen, 300 Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County 32001 Taiwan, Republic of China.

Email: tmchen@ncu.edu.tw

484569PPM42210.1177/0091026013484569Public Personnel ManagementChen et al.

research-article2013

294 Public Personnel Management 42(2)

examination is divided into individual oral examination, collective oral examination,

and group discussion.1 The results of the oral examination account for about 10% to

20% of the total examination grade, causing for some controversy about the oral

examination’s influence on admittance results. Apart from some examinees’ com-

plaints and even lawsuits on the matter, people also questioned about its procedure,

fairness issue, transparency, professionalism, and other personnel administration

considerations. This has made it a hot topic of research in Taiwan.

After reviewing documents dealing with the method of Taiwan’s civil service

exams, we have put together a list of the different complaints concerning the oral

examinations grading system: “The oral examination questions are not predicated on

job analysis,” “Similar oral exams are the responsibility of several different groups of

oral exam commissioners,” “The time for the oral exam was too short,” “There lacks

a constant standard for grading oral exams,” “Oral exam commissioners lack profes-

sional training of interview skills,” “The possibility of unfair treatment towards those

taking the exams,” “The oral exam commissioners may influence each other,” “There

is not a well established oral exam database of questions,” and “The group discussion

part of the examination lacks professional design” (Huang, 2007; Wang, 2004; Wu,

2000, pp. 50-51; Wu, 2007, pp. 16-18). It can be seen from the analysis above that the

oral examination of Taiwan’s civil service exam process is lacking in structure.

In order to clarify the points of controversy mentioned above, we need to assess the

impact of the oral examination grades on examinee’s admission. At the same time, we

explain some of the more common reforms being made in the area of grading oral

examinations. And finally, we identify the oral examination traits that exist in Taiwan.

In other words, we attempt to make a response to the need of improving oral examina-

tion’s reliability and validity by performing a structural analysis of related civil service

examinations.

Theories and Literatures Reviewed

The oral examination is either structural or nonstructural, which has a large impact on

exams’ reliability, validity, and its results (Campion, Palmer, & Campion, 1997). For

this reason, many researchers of oral examinations have started to look into the differ-

ence in influence of structured oral exams and nonstructured oral exams on reliability

and validity (Campion, Campion, & Hudson, 1994; Campion et al., 1997; Motowidlo

et al., 1992; Wu, 2007). After an analysis of different scholar’s definitions of highly

structured oral examinations, we can form a common definition: “an oral exam in

which the questions are based on job analysis, and the content and procedures of the

exam are standardized” (Campion et al., 1997; Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994; Motowidlo

et al., 1992).

The biggest difference between structured oral exams and nonstructured oral exams

is that the question designs of structured oral exams are based on job analysis, and the

content and procedure of the exam are highly institutionalized and standardized.

Therefore, structured oral examinations lessen the impact that the subjective opinions

and personal background of the oral exam commissioners might have on the admittance