This question aims to see, if you are happy to extend yourself beyond your regular job or do you like to perform only a given set of activities. This is also a test of your flexibility.
Explain about how you went about doing that extra thing focussing on its effect on the organization.
For e.g. I have been working in my current company for last 4 years, so I know the business pretty well. Whenever theres a new initiative required to be taken in the business, I am one of the very first choices of the top management. Some time back the company decided to start a new department whose responsibility will be to attract new customers. Initially it was to be done on the trial basis and I was given the responsibility to perform this trial. I could do it successfully, without much assistance from the seniors. Today, this department has 5 employees working in it and the business has grown up by 40%.
The purpose of this question is to check your adaptability and flexibility. Did you feel victimized?
Answer this question by mentioning the change that was made but the main focus should be on how you adjusted in that situation and the results you achieved afterwards.
For example you can say something like, Being an early joiner in the marketing team, I opened a lot of new customer accounts. Over the time the team grew and we had more people in the team opening more accounts. At one point of time, we had to re-distribute the accounts area wise so that a particular territory can be allotted to each one of us. This re-distribution meant loss of my high performing accounts and a requirement to develop new accounts in the assigned territory. Initially, it looked difficult but I could understand the need for this re-distribution and saw more opportunities for the company and myself. I introduced my colleagues to the old accounts I held and started strategizing for better ways to tap the new territory. Within 6 months, I could develop 50 new accounts with the help of new strategy. Usually we would achieve this result in 9 months to a year.
Not being able to perform well on certain things is not a problem. The purpose here is to see what did you do about your poor performance? Were you able to analyse the reasons for your poor performance? How did you deal with them?
A person who can assess his own performance is a great asset for a manager. Discuss about how you analysed your performance and took corrective actions to answer this question.
You can say that you have no objection for this but express your concern that it would be better if you could do it after arriving some sort of agreement.
You can even be honest in stating that your present employer is not aware of you hunting and you would appreciate to have any contact with them after having arrived some sort of agreement.