Author ORCID Identifier
Arlene Garrick: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9482-2926
Executive Summary
Hospitality employers continue to report a persistent readiness gap between academic preparation and operational performance. Supervisors cite inconsistent communication, limited cultural intelligence, weak leadership judgment, and subjective evaluation systems as barriers to building strong talent pipelines (Baum, 2015). This report presents the Competency‑Rated Experiential Assessment Model (C.R.E.A.M.), implemented within a live hotel operation at The Lodge at Hocking College to address these challenges. Within eight weeks, students demonstrated measurable improvements in communication clarity, cultural awareness, bias mitigation, and professional judgment. The model provides a scalable, low‑cost framework that hospitality operators and educators can adopt within a 30‑day cycle to strengthen leadership readiness and improve coaching consistency across departments.
Recommended Citation
Garrick, Arlene M.
(2026)
"Beyond the Lab: A Competency-Rated Model for Building Industry-Ready Hospitality Leaders,"
ICHRIE Research Reports: Vol. 11:
Iss.
5, Article 2.
DOI: 10.61701/261848.35
Available at:
https://via.library.depaul.edu/ichrie_rr/vol11/iss5/2
Included in
Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Hospitality Administration and Management Commons
