OPERATING SYSTEMS & SUSTAINABILITY - 2024/5

Module Overview

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of how tourism and hospitality operations function systematically. The systems approach adopted will enable students to critically analyze the interrelationships between systems theory, systems design and systems analysis in tourism and hospitality businesses. This approach will facilitate a critical appraisal of the sustainability and effectiveness of operational types and an evaluation of the potential for improvement. For those students with a background in tourism and hospitality, this module will provide a sufficiently distinct approach for them to gain new insights while offering students without any prior knowledge a framework to facilitate their understanding of new material

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

FILIMONAU Viachaslau (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicate content includes:

• System Concepts Designing Operating Systems Current Issues and Trends in Systems


• Designing Soft Systems - Managing People in Tourism and Hospitality


• Hard Systems - Processes and Technology


• Control systems & Quality Systems


• Continuous Improvement


• Operations Classification & Typologies


• Hotel Business Models


• Ownership and Management Structures


• Business Sustainability

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

In place of the Group Video Presentation students are are required to do an Individual assignment 1000 words

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the learning outcomes.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• a group assignment that provides students with an opportunity to verbally demonstrate in the form of a pre-recorded presentation their understanding of trends in systems design from the perspective of tourism and hospitality operations.


• The individual report is based on a case study presented in class to students.

Formative assessment and Formative feedback will be provided throughout the semester through in-class discussions both online and offline, and SurreyLearn discussion boards to support students.

Feedback on student performance during the module includes: Use of review questions and case studies Verbal feedback in weekly-seminar sessions

Peer-review opportunities Q&A sessions on the assignment both in weekly seminar sessions and by making use of assignment specific module discussion board. Feedback Face-to-face and electronic Once marking is completed, post-assignment feedback will be provided to each student through generic feedback and a detailed breakdown of section marks, which will help the students to identify the specific areas for future improvement.

Module aims

• Develop an understanding of systems theory, systems design and systems analysis and apply this to a range of tourism and hospitality operations
• Provide a framework that will allow students to critically evaluate the sustainability and effectiveness of existing or potential operating systems
• Enable students from a broad range of educational backgrounds to consider operations management from a new perspective and how to adopt a systems approach

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to develop the students' abilities to use a series of systems analysis techniques on a range of case examples designed to illustrate specific learning points, which can then be applied to real-world situations.

The learning and teaching approach taken in this module is to facilitate active hybrid (offline and online) learning and to support students in achieving the learning outcomes.

The learning and teaching methods include -

Lectures to illustrate the principles of systems design with application to the hospitality and tourism industries.

Live seminar to extend the understanding of the lecture through applicable exercises and industry case discussions. Once the basic principles of the systems approach have been established in the first two weeks, the learning and teaching focus will be placed on problem diagnosis and solution which will necessitate an approach that will move students from explanation to active involvement in the module content. The lectures and seminars will be supported by directed reading and exercises.

SurreyLearn will be used as an information portal and will contain captured content videos, lecture notes, and relevant reading.

Online discussion boards will also be in use for students to raise questions and discuss module content.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM511

Other information

This module adopts the University curriculum framework, which aims to develop learners with strong capabilities in Digital Capabilities, Employability, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module contributes to the development of the following capabilities: 

• Sustainability: Students will learn how to reflect on how to interpret business intelligence to support sustainability in the services industry. 

• Global and Cultural Capabilities: Students will learn how to interpret results of business analytics and their implications to service business in a global context by extracting, comparing, and contrasting individual and group behaviours, as well as sectoral, national, and regional differences captured from big datasets. 

• Resourcefulness and Resilience: Students will be required to use a range of sources to identify relevant datasets, conduct independent research, network with relevant companies/organisations, and work collaboratively with peers to extract patterns and critical insights from datasets. Finding solutions through unstructured problems is the key learning aspect of this module that will develop students’ resourcefulness and resilience.   

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2024/5 academic year.