Strategic Hospitality Management

Catalog description

The purpose of this capstone course is to integrate previous course work to enhance students' analytical and critical thinking skills, managerial decision making skills, and an awareness of emerging trends in the hospitality industry. In particular, this course will integrate content in the areas of hospitality marketing, human resource management, organizational behavior, finance, accounting, and hospitality operations. The course offers a blend of theory and practical application of models of competitive strategy. The central questions that drive the course are: 'How do hospitality companies make strategic decisions, and how does strategy enhance the effectiveness of hospitality enterprises?' During the first half of the semester, the course will focus on the model of strategy formulation, from developing company vision and mission and setting objectives, through conducting an environmental scan, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, strategic analysis, and strategic choice. During the second half of the course, the focus will shift to corporate social responsibility, ethics, international strategic decision making, global hospitality management, and emerging trends in the industry.