BA (Hons) Business with Tourism Management (Kaplan, Singapore)

You will learn advanced academic skills; such as how to use structured approaches to read, note-making, research and writing, transferable skills to ensure academic success in all your other academic modules and enabling you to conduct a critical literature review of employability, graduate marked place informed by career theory (see themes 1,2 and 3 below). Then using advanced research skills, theory and self-assessment tools you will learn how to and choose and apply for a relevant job role and career path, in turn enhancing your employability and transferable academic skills (themes 4 and 5). Finally, you will conclude the module by designing a complete set of graduate application tools for the job role and career chosen and will experience a no of recruitment exercises such as interviews, group exercises and self-branding and presentation to further develop your employability, academic performance and career management skills. The module will be concluded with a theoretical session and a number of practical exercises designed to develop your self-confidence and employability (theme 6).

Theme 1 – Introduction and advanced study skills
1. Introduction to advanced study skills and career development.
2. Searching for and critically evaluating academic and professional sources.
3. Critical analysis of information and data.
Theme 2 – Understanding the graduate labour market and employers
4. Understanding the global graduate labour market.
Theme 3 – What employers want from graduates and how to achieve it?
5. Enhance business awareness, networking, cultural sensitivity and global mind sets.
Theme 4 – Choose career path
6. Understanding and choosing suitable career paths.
Theme 5 – Design career personal development plan
7. Design a career personal development plan using the NU (ELA) framework.
Theme 6 - Recruitment, selection and employability/application tools
8. An introduction to recruitment and selection processes.
9. Development of skills and tools to enable students to demonstrate effective self-presentation.
10. Develop techniques and practice to excel at interviews.
11. Self-confidence and Employability: Conclusions and introduction to the extended critical literature review module that follows.
12. Assignment surgery

The aim of this module is to encourage engagement with Organisation Theory through offering a comprehensive account of ideas, perspectives and practices of organisation. You will learn to analyse organisations, people and organising practices through critical employment of Organisation Theory which challenges conventional understanding of organisations. You will learn to explore the impact of recent trends in Organisation Theory and Practice on people and their behaviour in organisations.

The module links topics on Organisation Theory and Practice:
• Introduction to Organisation Theory, and implications for practice: overview of three main perspectives (Modern, Symbolic and Contemporary)
• Organisation Theory:
o Theorizing relationship between Organisation and its environment
o Theorizing different perspectives on Culture and Organisation, and managing across cultures
o Theorizing organisational (physical and social) structure
o Theorizing power, control and conflict (including the feminist perspective)
o Theorizing Identity and organisational behaviour
• Applications in practice:
o Organisational Design, Sustainable Organisational Design
o Organisational learning, tacit knowledge and knowledge management
o Organisational change, change management, and sustainable development
o Aesthetics and organisations, performance, narrative, theatre and organisation
o Managing culture, people and behaviour in organisations, and managing across cultures

Upon completion of the module you will gain an in-depth understanding of:

o The major perspectives on Organisation Theory
o ‘Critical’ organisation theory and management practices
o The recent trends in organising practices
o Theory and practices involved in working in multi-cultural organisations with an awareness of ethical considerations.
o How to form your own construction of knowledge on organisations, managing people and their behaviour

On this module, you will learn about critical thinking and reflection, and doing so, you will develop the necessary critical skills to perform both of these effectively as a learner in higher education. You will learn about the necessary academic skills required to undertake a critical review of existing literature on a contemporary issue within the business and management disciplines. On completing this, you will be able to a critical literature review on a subject appropriate to your degree programme.

Here, you will be introduced to the module, before identifying how to select a contemporary issue within business and management. You will learn about the development of critical thinking and what is meant by a literature review as well as the importance of being able to write a literature review.

You will learn how to get started in this development; by searching for sources and developing essential research skills including reviewing literature and critical evaluation, before going onto develop you own critical literature review which represents the module assessment.

The dissertation module aims to equip you with the necessary intellectual and practical skills for undertaking an individual student-led, ethical investigation into an applied business (or the named degree) problem or issue. In addition, the dissertation aims to equip you with key transferable, employability skills, including: time management, project management, communication (written and verbal), negotiation, persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative, creativity and innovation in problem-solving, analysis.

The module is student-led but you are supported by, initially, weekly lectures and seminar-workshops which provide an introduction to undertaking Business-Management research followed by one-to-one or small-group supervision meetings.
The lectures and seminar-workshops will cover the following topics:
1. Developing a research aim/question (focusing and scoping the research)
2. Developing a literature review
3. Writing a research proposal
4. Researching ethically
5. Quantitative research techniques
6. Qualitative research techniques
7. Quantitative analysis techniques
8. Qualitative analysis techniques

Upon completion of the module you will be able to:
1. Conduct independent and ethical academic research involving the application and critical evaluation of appropriate theories and models,
2. Engage critically with relevant literature to establish a framework in which to analyse and synthesise the results of your primary or secondary research
3. Generate / collect relevant primary or secondary data using an appropriate and justified method
4. Analyse your data using an appropriate and justified method of analysis
5. Recognise the ethical implications of your work
6. Critically evaluate the source of your data and the method you adopted

1. How strategic recommendations are likely to be evaluated by various stakeholder groups that place a different interpretation on the measurement of business success.
2. Understanding the concepts and frameworks of Endogenous Strategy that apply to a company’s Capabilities, Competences and Resources.
3. How to synthesise key concepts in the Resource-based View of Strategy (RBV) and apply them to companies in competitive markets.
4. How Sustained Competitive Advantage (SCA) can be achieved and maintained in an era of finite resources and increasing demand for sustainability.
5. How Innovation can be managed and applied to Products, Processes, Business Models and Sustainability.
6. How Sustainability can be incorporated into successful Strategy Formulation, Strategic Implementation, and Business Model Innovation.
7. How Leadership impacts upon strategic decision making.
8. Understanding how the concepts of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility can be applied to meet the challenges of Ethical Business Management in the future.
9. How to successfully write compelling and influential strategic briefing documents based around the structure adopted by this module.

Business, sport and mega events are a key part of the economic life of many destinations. The planning, organising and managing of business and sports events is therefore an increasingly important industry. In this module you will develop both a critical and practical understanding of this growing sector of tourism and events management.

First, you will learn about the range and reach of business tourism, focussing primarily on the MICE industry (meetings, conferences, exhibitions, incentive travel and corporate events). You will examine the nature and scope of the MICE industry from a national and international perspective. You will also learn how to develop management strategies for the effective planning and management of MICE events.

Second, you will learn about the myriad forms and impacts of sports tourism including mega-events. The module will cover a range of sport events within an international context from major sporting events such as the Olympic to smaller local events like the Great North run. Consideration will also be given to current issues and trends such as impacts and legacies and the broadcasting of sport events, appraising likely future demand and developments worldwide.

Third, you will develop specialist knowledge of the latest management strategies for the planning, implementation, operation and control of events, which you will subsequently apply to real life situations. The areas covered include the conceptualisation, operational, and evaluation. Through the examining of real life situations, you will identify and explain key operational quality issues as well present and potential impacts.

You will initially learn about consumer behaviour in tourism, hospitality and event (THE) consumption. You will evaluate why this has changed in recent years and consider the market development into a more experienced, knowledgeable consumer demanding specialised, sophisticated and segmented products. You will learn about how THE consumers make purchase decisions utilising models of decision making theory.
You will progress, learning what categories of THE innovation are being developed; product and service, technical, process innovation, managerial/management, marketing, and institutional innovation. You will examine the benefits of innovation and creative product development for organisations in the THE sector. You will evaluate the notion of the entrepreneur and niche products. You will learn the importance of effective experience management. Having learnt the basic fundamentals behind consumer behaviour and the importance of new product development and innovative and creative service products you will move on to cover the following topic areas from a management, marketing, operational and strategic perspective:

• Health tourism
• Innovative packaging in THE
• Tailor made tourism
• THE for the ‘grey market’
• Wedding THE
• Ski tourism
• Adventure tourism
• Nature tourism
• Rural and farm tourism innovation
• Volunteer tourism
• Event Innovation
• Creative Attractions
• Sustainability in THE
• Innovations in marketing destinations and events
• Innovation in restaurants and hotels

The module concludes by reflecting on practice and developments in THE SME’s (small, medium size enterprises) and makes a comparison with operations and practice in larger organisations and how innovative products are developed within these organisations.