Understanding the external environment is a necessary attribute of a modern tourism and hospitality manager  The competing Values Framework (CVF) has been a significant element of assessing organizational effectiveness especially in the modern hospitality industry. Based on Quinn et al (2014), the CVF  is the management as well as the leadership competencies structure, that are founded into the paradoxical thinking, that forces the managers considering the competing tensions as well as the demands in their organization on daily basis. The CVF are usually split up into the four quadrants. They are internal and external environment within the business whilst the other two are flexibility and the control. As a manager in the modern tourism, it is important to focus on the external environment elements. According to Knudstrup (2012), the forces and institutions outside the organization that potentially can affect the organizations performance are external environment such as media, government policies, political action, competitors, trade association, and communities and so on. Later Knudstrup clarifies that all these factors may not always influence the manager strategies. However the complexity of the environment and the degree of change in environmental components may cause environmental uncertainty which may affects managerial decisions. Hence, manager first needs to understand environmental uncertainty that the industry will be facing so that it will make ease to forecast whether to follow same strategies or change it to overcome from the effect of external environment. References Quinn, R.E, Bright, D, Faerman, S.R, Thompson, M.P and McGrath, M.R 2014, Becoming a master manager: A competing values approach, 6th edn, John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York   Knudstrup, M 2012, ‘External Environment: Principles of Management’, Principles of Management External Environment, viewed on 07 May 2017, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmElC0tWqBs>