STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT - 2025/6

Module Overview

The module is intended to provide an opportunity to review current trends and strategic issues in the international THE (Tourism, Hospitality, Events) industry and their impact on managing international organisations. It will consider the influence of current and future global issues on strategic management of businesses including geo-dynamics, technological advances, new customer dynamics, sustainability concerns and resilience of key stakeholders through socio cultural and economic challenges. The content of the module will therefore review several theoretical concepts and case studies from THE industries delivered by industry experts and lectures/tutors to develop students' strategic thinking and management skills.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

RAMAKRISHNAN Sumeetra (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

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

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The content of the module is driven by the two assessment tasks.


• Mission and Purpose Strategic Options- Managing and Monitoring


• External and Internal Environment Analyses


• Organisational Culture


• Strategic Evaluation and Resourcing


• Strategic Growth


• Environmental and Competitive Context

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Individual Presentation instead of Group Presentation

Assessment Strategy

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

• ability to relate the theories of strategy to practice in international THE companies


• ability to critically analyse and evaluate the theories and disciplines that underpin strategy in international THE companies.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

1. Group Presentation - Undertake a strategic evaluation of the performance of an international THE company and provide an assessment of its future prospects.

2. Individual Assignment - You are required to write a 2000-word assignment from a list of topics

Formative assessment and Feedback Feedback on student performance during the module includes:

• Use of review questions and case studies


• Review of mini-presentations on the group assignment


• Verbal feedback in workshops


• Scheduled series of exam preparation clinics prior to the end of semester.

Module aims

• To provide students with a range of perspectives for reviewing the relevant strategic decisions taken by THE companies.
• To highlight how the nature of the industry means that the industry is largely driven and influenced by the actions of global and large companies across cultures
• To consolidate student's knowledge and understanding of business strategy and, in particular, to apply this to THE companies.
• To enable students to critique and apply theoretical frameworks of strategic management and thinking to companies operating in different sectors of the THE industries.
• To consider the implications of a critical evaluation of a company's strategies and how this influences the attractiveness of the company to investment
• To appreciate the impact of digital advances, sustainability concerns and other factors on strategic thinking and management of international THE organisations

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to encourage students to think critically about the strategic management of international tourism, hospitality, events and transport companies, independently analyse THE organisations' strategic cycles, compare performance metrics and data to provide useful solutions to identified challenges.

The principal teaching and learning method include lectures, seminars and independent plus guided learning.

These workshops will generally comprise:

Online and classroom based lectures delivered by the module tutors designed to develop an understanding of the underpinning theory. A series of student activities and discussions working in groups to explore and apply the lecture materials.

 

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: MAN3236

Other information

Digital Capabilities: This module aims to enhance students' capabilities in evaluating and critiquing data and capturing business insights to develop strategic thinking and management practices. Students will become familiar with comparing organisational level data using descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics and data visualisation. Students will use the virtual learning environment (VLE), SurreyLearn, video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams to facilitate learning. Module assessments require students to work in groups to evaluate the strategic performance of a THE company with regards to their complete strategic cycle to provide viable recommendations to potential investors.

Employability: The assessments are designed to develop key professional leadership skills desired by the sector. Students are required to individually apply strategic thinking skills, whilst recognising the challenges of a dynamic environmental context to critique theories of strategy and evaluate their application across international THE companies. The group assessment intends students to work with their peers to develop a consultant's mindset of evaluating organisations across a range of ever-changing factors to consider their long term viability and success.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: The module has a global outlook in terms of the international nature of THE companies, international competitors, geopolitical contexts as well as the diversity across ethnicities within organisations. Students will look at a range of international THE companies with headquarters across continents. Strategic management will be discussed through examples across gender, ethnicity, age and other aspects of inclusion, and how national and organisational cultures intertwine to influence strategic thinking. Students will learn how to compare organisational performance between international THE corporations by extracting, evaluating, and contrasting regional and multinational businesses whilst considering inherent sectoral, national, and regional influences.

Sustainability: Students will learn how CSR and Ethics influence international THE businesses, and the different approaches to sustainability practices within the sector. They will become familiar with the practical challenges to achieve long term sustainability when managing the needs of diverse stakeholders, role of key supra national organisations and evaluate innovative sustainability approaches adopted by THE projects across the world.

Resourcefulness and Resilience: Students will be required to use a range of sources to analyse relevant research papers, reports, quantitative/qualitative datasets and conduct independent research, network with relevant companies/organisations, and work collaboratively with peers to extract patterns and critical insights. 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 2025/6 academic year.