Page 47 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

5

The selection interview

Practical example

Carl Campbell, Assistant F&B Manager is going to retire within a short period. Freddy
Fortune and F&B Manager Harry Haddock believe that the vacancy will need to be filled
as soon as possible. In the twice-weekly management meeting it is decided that a closed
selection procedure will be initiated. First a selection committee is to be set up, consisting
of Freddy Fortune, Harry Haddock and Grace Green. It is decided that Harry Haddock
will make a start by doing a function analysis. When this analysis has been discussed
with Carl Campbell among others, an advertisement can be drawn up.
The text of such an advertisement is not easy to write. In order to ensure that the text is
as informative as possible, Harry Haddock divides it into five information blocks:

1 An overview of Dinner Ltd and the F&B department
2 An overview of the vacant position
3 An overview of the task demands, prerequisites and wishes of the organization
4 An overview of the labour conditions
5 Extra information.

When the text has been discussed by the committee members, the advertisement will be
placed in several large daily newspapers. Applicants interested in the job need to respond
within 14 days.
About 20 people reply to the advertisement. The first task of the selection committee
is to select application letters according to certain criteria:

• number of years of experience in a similar function
• extent to which the applicant satisfies the formulated function demands.
Each member of the committee reads and judges the letters individually. In a decision-
making meeting the applicants are compared. Finally five applicants are invited to an
interview and the other fifteen are informed in writing that they have not been selected.
One of the five applicants is Ken Klein. He is expected at Dinner Ltd on Wednesday at
10 o’clock. The Chairman of the selection committee is Harry Haddock. Together with
Freddy Fortune and Grace Green it has been decided who will pose which questions.
Each interview is scheduled to last 45 minutes.