NEWS DIGEST
GAP BETWEEN RHETORIC AND REALITY FOUND IN CORPORATE CAREER PROGRESSION
SCHOOL : Cork University Business School, Ireland
New research co-authored by Cork University Business School (CUBS) professor Ronan Carbery uncovers the gap between corporate rhetoric on talent development and actual hiring practices. In so doing, it asks whether the transferable leadership capabilities developed by business schools are truly valued by employers. The research focused on the hospitality industry, where a handful of behemoths operate multiple brands. Drawing on interviews with 45 hotel general managers across 16 different countries, it sought to analyse career mobility in a landscape where employees can conceivably move seamlessly between different hotel brands. In reality, however, the study found barriers to this form of movement – termed “inter‑brand mobility” – that are rooted in informal perceptions about who belongs where. Specifically, it discovered a “luxury glass ceiling” for career progression, whereby five-star hotel recruiters consistently seek candidates with existing five-star experience. The upshot is that unless graduates gain luxury experience early on in their careers, leadership positions in this segment of the industry can remain shut to them.
“Corporations claim to value leadership capabilities that transfer across contexts, yet when hiring decisions are made, decision-makers often retreat to requiring specific experience in the exact segment of the role,” stated Carbery, who is also EMBA director at CUBS. The researchers say their findings have applications for any industry because of the number of organisations that now manage portfolios of brands spanning different market segments. “Our findings suggest that talent management professionals need to actively monitor whether internal mobility is actually occurring across brand boundaries,” Carbery added. Graduate recruitment programmes offer a case in point, with the CUBS professor highlighting their potential to pigeonhole individuals and shape how they are perceived throughout their careers. Co-authored with University of Queensland Business School’s Stefan Jooss and individual contributor Miia Kuosa, the study was published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management . TBD
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Ambition • ISSUE 3 • 2026 11
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