A Hospitality Management Education Model: Recommendations for the effective use of work-based learning in undergraduate management courses

Abstract

Work-based learning is an active learning approach to management education that incorporates a variety of different pedagogical practices. The integration and application of these different practices are an effective means of building essential managerial and leadership skills. While hospitality management programs have long taken an active approach to education, this paper presents a comprehensive conceptual foundation for active learning that can be applied in hospitality courses and numerous other management courses. Specifically, this paper presents the application of a work-based learning approach to pedagogy in two undergraduate business courses – Organizational Behavior and Management Skills. Examples of learnings from student papers, and anonymous survey data, provide evidence that engaging in work-based learning helped students learn the subject matter in their respective courses. The present paper expands on earlier work on applied learning by synthesizing disparate pedagogical methods, by providing an integrated conceptual basis for applied learning projects, and by providing a framework for the implementation of work-based learning in multiple management courses. As many hospitality programs in North America are being integrated into colleges of business, work-based learning is especially pertinent given contemporary criticisms of traditional pedagogical techniques in management education