for Prof. MGK

Translating Strategy into HR Policies and Practices Case*,§
IMPrOVING PErFOrMANCE at The Hotel Pais
The New Interviewing Program
The Hotel Paris’s competitive strategy is “To use superior 
guest service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, 
and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate 
of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability.” HR manager Lisa 
Cruz must now formulate functional policies and activities that support 
this competitive strategy, by eliciting the required employee behaviors 
and competencies.
As an experienced HR professional, Lisa knew that the company’s 
new testing program would go only so far. She knew that, at best, em-
ployment tests accounted for perhaps 30% of employee performance. It 
was essential that she and her team design a package of interviews that her hotel managers could use to assess—on an interactive and personal 
basis—candidates for various positions. It was only in that way that the 
hotel could hire the sorts of employees whose competencies and be-
haviors would translate into the kinds of outcomes—such as improved 
guest services—that the hotel required to achieve its strategic goals.
Lisa receives budgetary approval to design a new employee interview 
system. She and her team start by reviewing the job descriptions and job 
specifications for the positions of front-desk clerk, assistant manager, se-
curity guard, valet, door person, and housekeeper. Focusing on develop-
ing structure valet, door for each position, the team sets about devising 
interview questions. For example, for the front-desk clerk and assistant 
manager, they formulate several behavioral questions, including, “Tell me 
about a time when you had to deal with an irate person, and what you 
did.” And, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with severalconflicting demands at once, such as having to study for several fi-
nal exams at the same time, while working. How did you handle the 
situation?” They also developed a number of situational questions, in-
cluding “Suppose you have a very pushy incoming guest who insists 
on being checked in at once, while at the same time you’re trying to 
process the check-out for another guest who must be at the airport 
in 10 minutes. How would you handle the situation?” For these and 
other positions, they also developed several job knowledge questions. 
For example, for security guard applicants, one question her team 
created was, “What are the local legal restrictions, if any, regarding us-
ing products like Mace if confronted by an unruly person on the hotel grounds?” The team combined the questions into structured interviews 
for each job, and turned to testing, fine-tuning, and finally using the 
new system.
Questions
7-28. For the jobs of security guard, and valet, develop five ad-
ditional situational, five behavioral, and five job knowledge 
questions, with descriptive good/average/poor answers.
7-29. Combine your questions into a complete interview that you 
would give to someone who must interview candidates for 
these jobs.