Risk Management in Hospitality Industry

Course Description:

In this course students study risk management and business compliance procedures that are unique to the hospitality industry along with the major areas and issues for compliance and risk management in the different sectors of the hospitality industry. This course examines risk management concepts and strategies, and disaster management frameworks within the context of the event and tourism industries. It firstly establishes a theoretical foundation which focuses on organizational and operational safeguards followed by consideration of a variety of risk management issues such as natural disasters, terrorism, public health, crowd control and pyrotechnics.

This course focuses on the ways in which businesses and society assess, control, and transfer risk. This process, known as the risk management process, is becoming an increasingly important tool in the management of business and personal financial health. Making adjustments, adapting to external and internal forces, and crisis or disaster management are incorporated in the corporate risk management process. An effective risk management program will reduce losses, and improve financial performance and employee morale.

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. analyse the functions and roles of hospitality managers and in particular their responsibility to plan, organise, lead and control;
2. compare and contrast the compliance and risk management issues in different sectors of the hospitality industry;
3. evaluate the significance of the control process, its purpose and the various levels of control required by an organization;
4. critically assess and demonstrate the various types of management information systems available to organisations to support compliance and risk management;
5. recommend appropriate decision-making and critical intervention points in the management of risk and compliance in the 24/7 context of hospitality operations;
6. debate the merits of common types of control systems used in business.