Questions About Literature Or Local Non-religious Work Wrong In An HR INTERVIEW?

I have interviewed an internal employee for role elevation from executive to managerial position.
I have questioned him on Maths and Business knowledge.
He was so weak on this topic.
I have asked him to tell him the favourite subject.
He said Tamil as he is from Tamilnadu.
Then I asked him to tell the 2nd Thirukural.
He said he don't know the answer.
He complained regarding Thirukural question to his superior.
His superior questioned my superior, why such questions have been asked interview?
Then, my manager called me and scolded for asking such questions!!!
Dear Professionals, please advice me.
Am I wrong?

Dear GENIUSHR,

Objections raised by the applicant are valid. In the internal job placements, why did you ask irrelevant questions?

Manager's job is to meet deliverable of his/her department. To meet the deliverables, he has to get the work done from his/her subordinates. To get the work done from subordinates, managers require job knowledge and people handling skills. People handling skills require conflict handling skills, negotiations skills, interpersonal skills etc.

For a managerial position, whether the job candidate is internal or external, he/she is expected to add value. Value addition comes from industry knowledge, competitors' knowledge, innovative mindset etc. Instead of asking questions on all this, your style was as if you were in some government organisation. In the "Maths and Business knowledge", what questions did you ask? Would you have asked the same questions to the external job candidate also?

What was the need to conduct test on Maths and Business? Is usage of those mathematical or statistical tools absolutely necessary in that department? This position is in which department? Did you ask questions related to KPIs and KRAs of that department?

There are few companies whose recruitment standards are very high. They do not take candidates with score below 70%. Does your company fall in this category? Does your company has that kind of culture where most of the decisions are based on the analytical tools? Does your company uses Operations Research (OR) techniques in day to day life?

By the way, you work in what department? What kind of mathematical tools, statistical tools do you use in your job? What quantitative technique do you use in your job? If you are from HR then have you done time and motion studies in your company? To decide the optimum manpower, did you use models of Linear Programming (LP)? It would be interesting to know this.

I have analysed the case dispassionately. There is nothing personal against you.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

In my opinion, the role of an interviewer is more that of a psychologist than that of a mere expert on the subject. The purpose of a career interview in respect of internal candidates is only to ascertain their suitability to the position they are vying for and not to make a subjectve conclusion against their candidature by asking them some baffling questions on elementary subjects. If the interviewer adopts such a negative mindset, as the interview progresses on such a negative note, its natural that the ego of the interviewer gets strengthened and he would indulge in mind games so as to ask such irrelevant questions. One should remember always that some one capable of assessing another with cent percent accuracy in some minutes is yet to be born.

Dear Sirs,
Thanks for your time and valuable suggestions.
I understand my mistake I will correct it now onwards.
Thanks Sir