A critical review and evaluation of teaching methods of strategic management in tourism and hospitality schools

摘要

Strategic management has become an important subject in university-level tourism and hospitality education since it aims to prepare and train future managers to develop a holistic management point of view. This paper critically reviews and evaluates different methods of teaching the subject. In particular, it provides discussions about the aims of teaching strategic management and refers to the challenges and difficulties of doing so in tourism and hospitality programs. A number of key conclusions and recommendations for practice and future research are also provided. An emerging conclusion of the paper is that although lecturing and the case study method seem to have been commonly used, no single teaching method appears to be sufficient to achieve the objectives of the course. Therefore, instructors teaching the subject should consider the contextual factors and, based on this, combine a number of teaching methods in order to provide students with the required skills and an up-to-date knowledge of the strategy field. However, due to contextual factors, changing teaching methods or adapting new methods may not be very easy since doing so may have important cultural, structural, and resource implications for tutors, students, and the institution.