The Portman Hotel Case Study

Case Brief #1

The Portman Hotel

The Portman Hotel runs on a system that, for the most part, focuses on one main employee, the Personal Valet. This position is really the heart of the organization and is the main selling feature of the hotel. Unfortunately the Portman Hotel has experienced low morale, poor performance, and poor attendance from the PVs due to several factors. These will be explained along with the three theories they fit into. The theories we will examine are the Fundamental Attribution Error, the Expectancy Theory, and the Operant Conditional Theory.

First we will examine the Fundamental Attribution Error. This error is described as “people’s tendency to place an undue emphasis on internal characteristics to explain someone else’s behavior in a given situation, rather than considering external factors.” This problem “is compounded by the tendency to extrapolate big conclusions form small samples.” An example of this in the Portman Company would be the relationship between the PVs and the “Floaters.” After the upper management decided to implement the 5-star Plan, they realized that they were overstaffed when the hotel was not at full staff. The solution to this problem was to add a number of Floaters to cover for low occupancy. Ultimately floaters ended up causing the same issues that the 5-Star Plan was supposed to resolve. PVs and Supervisors believed that Floaters were detrimental to the team. According to one supervisor Floaters had a tendency to “care less” which lead to “wasted time and lowered responsiveness to guests.” Permanent PVs also felt like Floaters were untrustworthy and were stealing tips.

Permanent PVs and Supervisors failed to understand that the issues with the Floaters may have been external issues instead of internal ones. The Floaters experienced many of the same issues that permanent PVs had in the first couple of months of the business. They worked on multiple floors which all had different floor plans....