INTERCULTURAL MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the way hospitality and tourism operations necessitate the adoption of a cultural approach to management. Understanding different theories, approached and proven practices will allow students to analyse situations where the business environment have been compromised by deficient cultural approaches. Mastering the managerial skills required for efficient cultural diversity, with a broad understanding of how it applies to business objectives, is of paramount importance within this module. The outcomes ensure that students have a clear idea of the inherent considerations involved with managerial decision-making, and their cultural consequences.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

VAN ACHTERBERGH Leon (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

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

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Introduction, definitions, theories and perspectives of intercultural management.

• The fundamentals of culture: drivers and consequences of globalisation.

• Cross-cultural competence and business.

• Principles of effective communication, communication styles.

• Challenges of communicating across cultures and international body language.

• Principles and styles of negotiation; cross-cultural negotiation.

• Management styles and challenges of managing across cultures.

• International marketing and best practice in global and culture-specific advertising.

• Organisational culture, ethical behaviour and the relationship between national culture and organisational culture.

• Intercultural management and leadership; motivating the global workforce

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Alternative assessment for group presentation. Individual assignment PowerPoint submission with notes of max 1000 words.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of different (and effective) management styles, as well as an understanding of the challenges of managing across cultures, thereby to apply this to a range of hospitality and tourism operations.

1. A group presentation assignment to provide analysis of a real-life conflict case study. This will allow the students to disseminate the essential rich information from interviews and analyse the case toward an evaluative conclusion in a concise and professional manner.


2. Individual analytical report based on individual themes with questions presented during each week of the module.

• During the first tutorial, the assignments and the feedback process is explained


• General assignment information is also provided during and after in-class discussions


• Pre-assignment Q&A sessions are an integral part of this module and are offered during the semester for both assignments


• Group presentation feedback and individual report preparation is given, based on supporting literature.


• Once marking is completed, students can access online reports, which contains generic feedback as well as a breakdown of the module marks.


• Each week the topic is directly relevant to the students’ understanding of both the assignments’ outcomes.

• For the group presentation and individual report, students receive online written feedback as well as a breakdown of the module marks.


• A formal feedback sheet outlines students’ strong points, areas for improvements and suggestions on how to improve students’ performance for other presentations.


• A post-assignment 1 feedback session is designed to help students to fully understand the feedback given.


• The written feedback will enable students to increase their knowledge and understanding of the appropriate skills for intercultural management.


• Tutorials and lectures are given to support both assignments prior to hand in.

Module aims

• • Evaluate and apply, within the hospitality and tourism context, appropriate theories and concepts of relations in organisational culture and the development of intercultural management;
• • Explore factors of intercultural competence, cultural diversity and cultural identity from a strategic, organisational, and marketing perspective;
• • Understanding the ethical factors that arise from an intercultural perspective on business activities;
• • Exposure to a range of critical approaches drawn from various disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, organisational development, and management science

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Develop the students’ abilities to use a case study analysis technique on a range of cultural diversification challenges, designed to illustrate the specific learning points, which can them be applied to ‘live’ situations.


• Develop the students’ abilities to understand their participatory role in the learning and teaching process, and the proposed learning outcomes to be achieved.

• Lectures, tutorials, exercises, and case discussions as appropriate. Once the basic principles of the different managerial approaches have been established, the focus will be placed on problem diagnosis and solutions, which will necessitate a teaching approach that will move from exposition to involvement.

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: MAN2153

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing undergraduate students with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. See the indicated catagorisation thereof, as per the ‘learning outcomes’ section.

i.    Employability: This module provides students with a working knowledge of the key planning tools used by entrepreneurs in practice. These tools will be demonstrated with the students’ understanding and presentation of their assignments. Many key transferable skills, like resilience, cultural awareness, negotiation and problem-solving  will be practiced during the semester that will test their entrepreneurial approach to business challenges.

ii.    Resourcefulness and Resilience: The approach of this module focusses on tutorial topics where students are consistently critically challenged with business issues that require creative and innovate thinking. This adds to their understanding of the resourcefulness needed to make a business profitable and sustainable.

iii.    Global and Cultural Capabilities: The module also addresses global perspectives, highlighted by best business practices and case studies across the world. Students are encouraged to share experiences and knowledge from their own cultures and backgrounds, and to respect and value differences in entrepreneurial experience.

iv.    Digital Capabilities: Learning to navigate the VLE, SurreyLearn, is an essential part of this module. Teaching and learning materials are provided in several formats, and students are encouraged to use discussion boards for communication. Students are also encouraged to communicate with one another for preparation of their group presentations using various electronic means. Specific teaching on conducting literature searches and using referencing software is included in this module. Students are encouraged to work together in groups, utilising collaborative tools to communicate. Their Excel skills, among other software, would be enhanced, in expressing and publishing their assignment findings. 

v.    Sustainability: All approaches to business should refer to environmental and social impacts, and therefore a sustainable approach is integral to planning business. In each of the topics covered, the sustainable current issues and challenges are discussed, and assessed in the assignment outcomes.

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 2025/6 academic year.