MBA Hospitality Management
The core modules of this postgraduate course aim to develop a critical appreciation of the issues and complexities of the present and future business environment and the need for strategies of sustainability in business and society. It brings together relevant contemporary case studies and academic theories, and research with a practical understanding of activities within organisations.
In addition, students learn the hospitality management principles and skills needed to manage the complex and challenging relationship between a hospitality service provider and its customers and visitors. Students will also gain a detailed understanding of the yield and revenue management function within a hospitality organisation using tools and techniques to improve and evaluate the operation’s overall profitability.
Students learn in an expertly designed interactive environment accessible on a wide range of devices. This learning environment offers discussion groups, forums, and group-based tasks to foster collaboration, creativity, and active learning. Supported by their tutors, students connect with and learn alongside other professionals and peers working in a range of industries in collaborative online workshops and share knowledge and ideas through professional practice discussions.
Module and Specification
Duration: 8 weeks
The module will focus on leading and developing individuals and high-performance teams within an organisational culture. Consideration will also be given to approaches to workforce planning including talent management, learning organisations, workforce design, succession planning, diversity, and inclusion. Leadership theory and practice, communication, and decision-making will be explored, and the impact on strategic workforce planning. There will be an appraisal of own role and capacity in these areas.
Outline Syllabus:
- Managing self and personal development
- Communication and interpersonal processes
- Group dynamics
- Leadership theory and practice
- Organisational psychology (personality and motivation)
- Organisational culture (incl. storytelling)
- Developing people, knowledge and skills
- Decision making
Duration: 8 weeks
The module Marketing and Stakeholder Engagement aims to equip students with a critical appreciation of the marketing subject area and how organisations can create enhanced competitiveness through stakeholder engagement. The module introduces marketing management to students whose previous studies and current occupations may be very diverse and emphasises the need for a critical and analytical perspective. It therefore assumes no previous knowledge of the subject. The module investigates marketing within a global environment, and a consideration of how the impact of environmental trends and customer demands shapes companies marketing strategies. A focus on key stakeholders and their level of engagement will be considered. The module is to be practically based with application to industry. It will establish a sound foundation of knowledge of marketing core concepts that can be integrated with and further built upon in subsequent modules within the course.
Outline Syllabus:
- The marketing management process and the business environment
- Global marketing strategic challenges
- Brand management and reputation
- Marketing research and trend analysis
- New market strategies, changing customer demands and trend analysis
- Stakeholder engagement
- How the strategy of an organisation impacts on the marketing plan
Duration: 8 weeks
This module relies on concepts of strategic decision making to explore how strategy is conceived, by integrating theory, practice, and experience. Key questions the module will explore are related to how strategy affects the organisation and how the organisation can be designed to realise its strategy efficiently and effectively, given the understanding of the internal structures, processes and culture, and the external conditions. The module will bring students to know how mission, vision and values are shaped in an organisation. It will cover topics related to organisational structures, business models and how the external environment (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) impacts current and new strategies. This module is designed to build students’ skills and strategic decision making, in terms of assessment of situation, information and resources, conceptualisation of strategies, implementation, and monitoring of the results. Within this module, reasonable people, with different experiences, specialised skills and functional perspectives, will have different views. Strategy involves making sense together, through an innovative and creative process.
Students will be asked to perform research based on complex information and constructs, analyse real life business situations challenging the status quo, and reflect on their own practice.
Outline Syllabus:
- The concept of Strategy, strategy as a theory and strategy as a practice, and the manager as a strategist, the importance of anticipating the future and strategic thinking.
- Shaping organisational vision, culture and values
- Organisational structures; business modelling; diversity; global perspectives; the external environment, social, technological and policy implications
- Supporting the strategy making process with tools and models. The importance of understanding industry dynamics to anticipate and shape competition in the future. Identifying, analysing and appraising resources and capabilities.
- Strategy in practice in creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Business Strategy, Corporate Strategy,
- Use of horizon scanning and conceptualisation to deliver high performance strategies focusing on growth/sustainable outcomes
- Leadership Reflections
Duration: 8 weeks
The module aims to give background and advancement of the understanding that managers and leaders need in terms of financial applications. The module will cover the basis of financial and management accounting, introducing concepts which lead to the development of a more competent understanding of the budgeting and other associated resource allocation problems. Further to this, financial accounting is introduced as separate from management accounting, to enable understanding of the financial reporting statements which firms must produce to be compliant with the regulations of their company structures. Beyond this we review some financial analysis, including trend identification and concepts or issues that firms face from their funding choices. This leads to a greater understanding of the financial consequences of the decisions which management choose.
Outline Syllabus:
- Management Accounting – The identification of core concepts such as revenues and costs. How these constructs come together to create profit or surplus. What is the importance of profit and cash. Why are these constructs different. This section will include cost management in the form of procurement contracts and supply chain management.
- Management Accounting – How we can use ideas of costs and revenues to create/manage profit or surpluses, and how we can plan for these, using the various Management Accounting concepts and tools (Break-Even, Budgeting, Full Costing, etc.).
- Financial Accounting – What types of firms exist and what are the requirements placed upon them report information to stakeholders. This will include Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Comprehensive Income, Cash Flow Statement and how they are derived.
- Financial Accounting – Analysis of the financial health, including, profitability, liquidity, etc. of an entity and how this information can be interpreted for use in terms of financial decision making.
- Financial Management – from budgeting and cash flow management, the module develops the ideas of cash flow investment appraisal techniques. This includes how the discount rates are derived, which cash flows to include, as well as reviewing other investment appraisals techniques, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.
- Leadership reflections
Duration: 8 weeks
The module examines corporate governance concepts and principles, developing the key skills necessary to support the development of good governance, risk management, control, and stakeholder dialogue throughout the organisation. The module provides an overview of the role of boards and directors in corporate governance and also develops an understanding of an essential role that corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays in corporate governance worldwide. The module aims to develop students who understand and appreciate the importance of going beyond financial information and supporting good ethical business practices to help companies sustain long-term success. Cybersecurity is essential to good corporate governance and risk management. The module evaluates techniques to manage cybersecurity risks within the student’s own organisation and the wider environment.
Outline Syllabus:
- An overview of governance evolution and practice
- Framework and principles of corporate governance
- The role of boards and directors in corporate governance
- Relations with stakeholders
- Risk management and internal control
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- CSR and Sustainability within the student’s own organisation
- Introduction to Business Ethics
- Ethics in organisations and values-based leadership
- Cybersecurity in governance and risk management
Duration: 8 weeks
The module has a strong focus on entrepreneurial thinking, innovation, creativity and intrapreneurship, leading to the development of a business case. There will be consideration of the innovative and creative process, both at individual and corporate level. Corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship take place not only as a desired result of a company’s strategy but also as a precondition of strategic success in a responsible environment which can result in creating and sustaining competitive advantage. In a similar role to that of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs seek to provide solutions to problems, for example low productivity, excess waste, poor quality, low morale. As well as identifying the potential business benefits of intrapreneurship, there will be consideration of strategies to encourage, nurture and lead intrapreneurship within the organisation There will be the production a strategic plan for a project which will enable the implementation of an innovative solution to a business issue.
Outline Syllabus:
- Individual and corporate entrepreneurship
- Models of intrapreneurship
- Benefits of intrapreneurship, fostering and encouraging entrepreneurial thinking at different levels within own organisation, and strategies and frameworks to support this
- Leading and driving a culture which supports the development of innovative and intrapreneurial thinking
- Strategies for resourcing innovation within an organisation
- Producing a plan for an innovation-based project.
Duration: 8 weeks
This course aims to equip hospitality managers with the skills and knowledge to understand and apply the principles of managing yield from resources and space in the hospitality sector including accommodation, food and beverages, meeting and events.
Students will gain a detailed understanding of the Yield and Revenue Management function within a hospitality organisation using tools and techniques to improve and evaluate the overall profitability of the operation. The course will focus on understanding the drivers for improving both the top line and the bottom line with tools and techniques specific to the hospitality sector.
Outline Syllabus:
- Principles of Yield Management and the evolution from rooms yield management to total revenue management. The concept of differential pricing will be explored and the growing importance of the role of the Revenue Manager.
- The concept of price in the hospitality industry. This will include understanding the importance of pricing strategies for creating value for the customer as well as ensuring that the costs of the business are understood. Techniques will combine an understanding of both marketing and financial concepts to develop an overall strategy to pricing.
- Budgets, forecasts, and demand forecasting along with different types of market segmentation commonly used by the sector.
- The growth of yield management practices across all aspects of the hospitality business to improve the profitable usage of business resources such as space and time.
- Reporting and interpreting hospitality performance measurements to improve profitably and the long-term sustainability in a post-COVID operating environment to fulfil key stakeholder requirements
Duration: 8 weeks
This module equips current and future leaders in the global world of hospitality management with insight into the multi-faceted domains that make up the industry. Operations management is central to all hospitality organisations and this module is designed to give students a thorough understanding of the way hospitality operations function through the adoption of a systems approach. This module provides a grounding in core theoretical concepts, principles and processes associated with operations management related to hospitality organisations. Students will challenge, critique, analyse, evaluate, and synthesise ideas and concepts in the context of their hospitality experience. This approach will facilitate a critical approach focused on the effectiveness of particular operational hospitality types and an evaluation of the potential for improvement.
This new knowledge will allow for the formation of more precise business planning, possibly within in their existing domain, or probably with a newly formed international perspective and knowledge of how other sectors of the industry operate. It will cover core fundamentals of the industry make-up, providing an insight into both corporate philosophies and practices, as well as how they may be transformed into operational implications.
Outline Syllabus
- Introduction to hospitality operations management and the relationship between operations management and hospitality systems.
- The fundamental structure of major hospitality firms’ products and services. How they are continually searching for market superiority through continued growth and diversified offerings.
- Accommodation services management. Identification of the key drivers of performance in respect of meeting the needs of customers and owners of hospitality firms.
- Food and Beverage Management. An assessment of current global trends in food and beverage management, both within hotel-based operations as well as standalone operations.
- Innovation in hospitality firms. How do hospitality firms use innovation and technology to continually search to gain market superiority and competitive advantage.
- Customer satisfaction leading to customer loyalty. An assessment of the current relevance of these two concepts, and how they are related
Duration: 32 weeks
The Negotiated learning Project forms the final part of the MBA Leadership, MBA Finance, University of Lincoln Module Specification MBA Hospitality Management and associated pathways and allows students to demonstrate mastery of their chosen pathway in a ‘capstone’ project for an organisation, which also considers the Lincoln International Business School’s principles of responsible management. It is an individual and independent project in which students can focus on a chosen business problem or challenge, bringing together elements of the students learning from different parts of their MBA to demonstrate accumulated knowledge and understanding of management and its application to an organisation through synoptic assessment. The Negotiated Learning Project provides students the opportunity – as leaders and managers in an organisation – to initiate, lead and drive change within a company. The Business Project is undertaken in an area chosen by the student, related to their pathway and is supervised by a member of Faculty. The module provides a framework for business research methods and requires the in-depth development of a proposal for the Business Project. By undertaking the project students will be demonstrating their ability to research and critically analyse and integrate complex information as well as demonstrating the core skills and behaviours necessary in the world of contemporary leadership and management and cognisant of ethics, sustainability, and responsible management.
Outline Syllabus:
- Leading and identifying the stages of a work-based project which is appropriate for the professional context Project planning focusing on aims, methodology, resources and criteria for evaluation
- Principles of responsible management; reflection and critique
- Research ethics process (LEAS)
- Values and ethics of an organisation and their impact on organisational projects
- Undertaking research, data analysis, problem solving and decision-making techniques
- Use of evidence-based tools and ethical approaches to undertake problem solving and support decision making
- Presenting project process and outcomes in appropriate manner and format