MSc Business with Hospitality and Tourism Management

This module is the first of two that prepares you to be highly employable, and enables you to demonstrate your ability to make an immediate impact on your organisation of choice.

It develops key hard and soft skills which have been identified by current research as those necessary for postgraduate students seeking work.

Developing Global Management Competencies II facilitates and supports you to develop and refine relevant and up-to-date employability skills, and in so doing enables you to recognise and articulate how you can demonstrate your potential added value to organisations.

You will learn about the development of practical skills and the techniques required by businesses to help in project management and the implementation of data management and data analytics solutions. The module will introduce some project management processes, frameworks and methodologies e.g. PRINCE2, Agile, PMBOK as well as some database principles and data analytics.

This is a 40-credit core module running in the first semester of the MSc Business with programme and is developed for those of you who have little or no prior business and management subject experience. The aim of the module is to introduce you to the main business functions – Finance, Marketing, HRM, Operations, Strategy – and show how each can contribute to the competitive advantage of a firm and hence enable the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. The content of the module comprises six key parts which are listed below.

The hospitality industry has developed a critical role in the world economy and represents a major source of income for many developing countries. The industry is dynamic and is greatly influenced by many external factors that affect modern management practice. In this module, you will explore a number of relevant contemporary issues and opportunities facing international hospitality organisations and the impact of these issues and subsequent management responses.

The module is delivered in themes; including managing resources, managing the experience, managing technology and sustainability.

A constant theme within this module the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to hospitality management in order to meet the challenges and opportunities explored in these issues.

In this module, you will develop a general understanding of tourism as both as an area of business economics and as a social phenomenon, and will gain an advance knowledge of some of the main theories and concepts in tourism studies. You will also become aware of the state of tourism in the 21st century as well as the different components that constitute the tourism complex including its tourists, destinations, business and attractions.

The management of tourism and tourists will receive special attention. As future managers in the contemporary industry you will gain familiarity with the structure and management of the business overall and a range of appropriate business types, the issues facing the industry and the management principles that are relevant to tourism.

You will cover a range of topics in four areas, the understanding of tourism as both a social phenomenon and as a sector of the economy, the nature of tourist experience, the planning of tourism destinations and attractions and responsible tourism futures.

The module is designed to facilitate the development of the student learning experience over the course of their one-year full time Masters programme. Academic and Professional Development activities will be delivered, where appropriate, in parallel with Academic Skills (ASk) sessions. Both will be mapped to support student academic skills and professional development to support the delivery of programme modules.

In this module you will learn about a variety of different research methods. This will equip you with the knowledge and practical skills necessary for you to conduct research at Masters’ level and prepare you to complete a Masters dissertation or consultancy project. By the end of the module you will know how to apply both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques. In quantitative techniques you will learn about sampling, questionnaire design, statistical inference, and hypothesis testing while qualitative techniques covered will include methods such as interviewing and focus groups. Analysis methods such as content analysis and thematic analysis will also be covered. In addition, you will gain some understanding of research philosophy (positivism and interpretivism) and research ethics and you will be able to write a research proposal to bring these ideas together.

In this module you will gain an understanding of the academic skills that are required to produce a Masters Dissertation. By the end of the module you will have written a 3000 word dissertation proposal and a 15000 word Masters dissertation.

On this consultancy based module you will enhance your individual effectiveness and employability skills by locating the learning and development in an organisational context. In doing so, you will promote personal and group development, commercial awareness, and a range of inter-personal, intellectual and practical skills and knowledge centred on and demonstrated through a group negotiated real-time work-based project.

The content of the management report will be unique. The nature and scope of the area of your investigation will be defined and agreed in collaboration with the organisation and the University supervisor.

In undertaking this project based module, you will critically reflect and evaluate upon organisational practices and their relation with academic theory, and in doing so, provide practical and actionable recommendations through an investigative management report.