Globalisation, FDI, and HR: A Study of Debenhams' Operations

This report examines the impact of globalisation and foreign direct investment (FDI) on Debenhams, a multinational department store. The research aims to study the economic, cultural, and ethical impacts of globalisation on Debenhams' HR functions. The report outlines the research approach, design, and methodologies, including the use of an inductive research approach and random sampling of 25 HR managers. Data analysis reveals insights into the challenges faced by the HR department, such as managing costs, policy implications, and economic unpredictability. Key findings include the managers' views on globalisation trends, the challenges faced, and the impact on HR functions. Recommendations are provided for Debenhams' HR department to improve its functions in the context of increasing FDI. The report concludes with a reflection and references, alongside an appendix containing the questionnaire, log book, and performance review details. The study provides valuable insights into the effects of globalisation on the business and the challenges faced by HR departments in the context of foreign direct investment.

Globalisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company...........................................................................................................3
Research Approach.....................................................................................................................5
Research Design .........................................................................................................................5
Research Philosophies.................................................................................................................5
Sampling ....................................................................................................................................5
Data Collection............................................................................................................................6
DATA ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION ...........................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................12
REFLECTION ..............................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................15
Questionnaire............................................................................................................................15
Questionnaire.................................................................................................................................15
Log Book ..................................................................................................................................16
Performance Review.................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Foreign direct investment is a type of investment where it controlling for the ownership
in the business in the one country by the entity which is based in another country. The main
origin of the investment do not impact because the investment my be made inorganically by the
company in the target of the countries and organically by the expansion of the operations of the
existing business in the country. It is more important then the trade and the last decade has been
assisted for the wave of the globalisation(Jones and Wren, 2016.).
Overview of the company
Debenhams is a multinational operating under the department store format in the UK. It
sales the wide range of the clothing, household items, cosmetics and also furniture. It is a
fashion retail industry and there are 27,893 employees are working in the company(Krugman,
2017).
Research background
The main purpose of conducting this research is for outing and identifying the important
topics of this study and it has been describe the major impact of the foreign direct investment in
the respect of globalisation. This main reason behind this research is to identify the positive
impact of the globalisation and also the challenges which has been faced by the HR department
in the context of foreign direct investment.
Aims & Objectives
Aim
“To study the positive economic, culture and ethics impact of globalisation in respect to HR
functions of businesses with the increasing foreign direct investment”. A study on Debenhams.
Objective
 To identify the current trends of the globalisation in respect to foreign direct investment.
 To determine the impact of positive economic, culture and ethics impact of globalisation
in respect to HR functions of businesses with the increasing foreign direct investment.
 To extract the challenges faced by the HR department with increasing foreign direct
investment.

 To provide the recommendation for Debenhams for further improvement in HR
functions.
Rationale
The research has been carried out for the academic interest and as this research project
will help in understanding the role of foreign direct investment in achieving growth and success
for the company. It will help in understanding challenges faced by companies and will increase
the knowledge and also enhance the understanding of the topic. It will develop conceptual
understanding of how foreign direct investment affected the functions of the HR department.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
It is an formal and approved document which defines the execution, controlling and
monitoring of the project and it also include the subsidiary, baselines and management plans etc.
Scope:- The scope of the research is the utility of the projects which is basically known
as the scope of the research. The scope of the research has been undertaken the understand and
explicit of the research. The scope of the research is it can used on both academic and corporate
level. It is useful in corporate level for understanding and seeking the better functions of the
business. and on academic level is is useful for the students(Anyanwu, 2017).
Cost:- For conducting the research its important to make the budget according to the cost
of the company. So, it is helpful in making the next steps of the research.
Resource:- There are so many resources which has been taken at the time of conducting
this research which is useful for the research such as the laptops, equipments, human resources,
internet etc.
Communication:- its necessary to have an effective communication at the time of
conducting the research because it helps in collecting the information and data from others.
Effective communication leads to the effective plan for the research and make good relations
with others.
Risk:- Risk having the high degree of uncertainty and its important for researcher to
identify and analyse the risk which have so many probability to occur during the research.
Conducting this research, there are number of risk factors which has been associated with the
research such as loss of data, physical injury of the researcher, theft of data, and so on. The
occurrence of these risks may affect the outcomes of the study so it is necessary to evaluate the
occurrence of risk which has been included in the research(Czaika and Neumayer, 2017).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Research Approach
Research approach is the procedure and plan which consist the steps of the assumptions of the
board for the detailed method for collecting the information and data, interpretation and also
analysis of the data. There are three approaches of the research such as the deductive approach
where it formulated the set of hypothesis which need to confirm and reject during the process of
research next is inductive research approach where it do not involve the information of the
research. The researcher will use the inductive research approach for the achieving the goals and
objectives.
Research Design
This is the study of procedures and methods for measuring and collecting the variables for
specifying the research problems and issues. There are two types of research design such as;
Experimental and descriptive research design methods, Experimental designs approach used to
analyse causal relationships and to study the relationship among one variable and any other.
Further, this is a conventional sort of studies this is quantitative in nature. Researchers will use
the experimental design for examine one or more corporations on one or greater activity(Kumar,
2019).
Research Philosophies
There are two methods of research philosophy such as, Positivism and interpretivism whereas
Positivism means the view that only genuine knowledge gained via observation, together with
size and on the other hand, interpretivism is related to the philosophic view of theory, and is
used to combine together diverse strategies, inclusive of social movements, doctrine and divinity;
strategies that evaluate the objectivist view which means is living within the international
independently of state of mind. Furthermore, the researcher will use the interpretivism approach
because, this method helps in awareness on meaning and one method in order to reflect
exceptional components of the problem.
Sampling
it is a process for using the statistical analysis which has been predetermined the numbers of
observations for taking the large numbers of population for sampling. It is the selection of subset
for the individuals and within the statistical populations(Silverman, 2016). There are two types
of sampling methods such as, non-probabilist sample is a tool which odds of any person being

decided for a sample and cannot be measured. However, another is probabilistic sampling, in
which they could calculate the percentages. The researcher will use the random sampling method
for collecting randomly data from any 25 HR mangers of the company because this method is
cost effective and less time consuming which observe the larger number of sample.
Data Collection
It is the process of collecting the information and data from all the sources which is relevant to
finding the answers of the research problems and also evaluate the outcomes. Data collection has
collected the data by two sources such as the primary data collection where the it collect the data
on their own hand and from the surveys, interview etc. and on the other hand the secondary data
collection has been collected the data from secondary sources of by someone else such as the
internet, books, journals etc. the research will use both the data collection for collecting the
original and relevant information of the research(Flick, 2015.).
DATA ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION
Theme 1: Maximum numbers of HR mangers are belong to age group.
Particular HR mangers
25 to 30 years 9
30 to 35 years 10
35 to 40 years 5
40 years above 4

Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified that there are maximum numbers of managers who are belong to the same age group
which is useful for conducting this research. There are 9 mangers who are belong to the 25 to 30
years age group and younger in the company, there are 10 mangers from 30 to 35 years who
handles all the situations with patience and rest of the 35 to 40 years and also 4 years above
mangers work with their experience for the expansion of the foreign direct investment(Galli,
2019.).
Theme 2: Maximum numbers of HR mangers long working with the company.
Particular HR mangers
2 years 3
3 years 6
5 years 3
5 years above 2
25 to 30 years 30 to 35 years 35 to 40 years 40 years above
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
HR mangers

Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified as there are so many mangers who are working with the company for so many years
such as there are 6 mangers who are working from last 5 years which shows the patiences of
working in the company.
Theme 3: Maximum numbers of HR mangers know challenges has been faced by the
globalisation.
Particular HR mangers
Increased the creativity 9
lowered cost for goods and services 5
job mobility 6
western dominance 3
2 years
3 years
5 years
5 years above
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
HR mangers

Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified that there are so many challenges which has been faced by the mangers which as there
are 9 mangers who are working for increasing the productivity of the company, there are 5
mangers who maintaining the pricing strategy and 6 mangers providing the job mobility to other
employees and rest of the 3 employees working on the western dominance which has been
expected by the company through the foreign direct investment(Cole, Elliott and Zhang, 2017.).
Theme 4: Maximum numbers of HR mangers opinion about the current trends of the
globalisation in respect to foreign direct investment.
Particular HR mangers
Satisfied 9
Highly satisfied 8
Dissatisfied 6
Highly dissatisfied 3
Increased the creativity
lowered cost for goods and
services
job mobility
western dominance

Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified that the HR mangers opinion about the current trends of the globalisation in respect to
foreign direct investment and gives suggestion to the company such as there are 9 mangers who
are satisfied whereas there are 8 mangers who are highly satisfied on this opinion the current
trends of the globalisation has expand the business globally and there are 6 mangers is
dissatisfied and rest of the 3 mangers are highly dis satisfied and gives their opinion about the
current trends of globalisation is negative that it creates problems to adopt the new policies and
process(Bitzenis, 2016.).
Theme 5: Maximum numbers of HR mangers agreed about the impact of globalisation in
respect to HR functions of businesses with the increasing foreign direct investment.
Particular HR mangers
Agreed 8
Disagree 6
Satisfied
Highly satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied

Neutral 4
Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified that the HR mangers agreed about the impact of the globalisation in the business with
the increasing of the foreign direct investment. There are 8 mangers who are agreed with the
statement and 6 mangers are disagree on this statement and rest of the mangers are neutral for
both the situation.
Theme 6: Maximum numbers of HR mangers challenges faced by the HR department with
increasing and adopting the foreign direct investment.
Particular HR mangers
Reduction in cost 9
Policy implications 4
Undeveloped legal system 3
Unpredictable foreign economy 6
Satisfied
Highly satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied

Interpretation: The above study convey the 25 HR managers of the Debenhams which has been
identified that the HR mangers thinks that there are so many challenges which has been faced
HR department in the respect of adopting the Foreign direct investment and making new changes
in the company. There are 9 mangers who are working for reducing the cost and 4 mangers
working for implications of the policies in the company and there are 3 mangers working for the
undeveloped legal system of the company and rest of the 6 mangers understanding the
unpredictable foreign economy(Buettner, Overesch and Wamser, 2018).
RECOMMENDATIONS
The above study has been summarised that the researcher has been evaluated the
beneficial and problems of the foreign direct investment and also the current trends of the
globalisation for continuing the global economic resulting and growth the and also control the
business on their hand and drive the performance by multiple factors and also it involves the
freedom for doing the business across the boarders in each and every segments for targeting the
economy of the country.
Above study has been analysed that there are so many challenges has been faced by the
HR department in the respect of the foreign direct investment because it affect the process and
Satisfied
Highly satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied

activities of doing the business which has been handle by the HR such as the development of the
economy, human capital enhancement, international investment and labour standards, disputes,
implication for the economic growth, wages and equity. From adopting the foreign direct
investment it improve the quality of the business and expand the business globally.
REFLECTION
I have learn so many things from this research. I feel very pleasure to conduct this
research where I formulate the aims and objectives of the business from I can reach to the end of
the conclusion and then I forward to the next step where I give introduction about the topic and
provide the research background. I have learn so many things such as I have prepared the project
management plan for identifying the brief about the sources which has been used for conducting
this research. In addition to this it has been evaluated the research methodology for collecting the
data and analyse the collected data. Furthermore, the most amazing thing I have identified the
recommendation for the Debenhams and at the end I want to conclude the research which makes
me very confident and more studies in the future.
CONCLUSION
Foreign direct investment is a type of investment where it controlling for the ownership
in the business in the one country by the entity which is based in another country. This research
will conclude the current trends of the globalisation in respect to foreign direct investment and
also the impact of positive economic, culture and ethics impact of globalisation in respect to HR
functions of businesses with the increasing foreign direct investment. Moreover, it will conclude
that there are so many challenges faced by the HR department with increasing foreign direct
investment.
This report will conclude that there are so many problems and issues has been arises
when the investment has been done and also HR mangers handle the situation and employees
according the new policies and new culture of another country.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Jones, J. and Wren, C., 2016. Foreign direct investment and the regional economy. Routledge.
Krugman, P., 2017. Crises: The price of globalisation?. In Economics of Globalisation (pp. 31-
50). Routledge.
Anyanwu, J.C., 2017. Foreign direct investment. Handbook of globalisation and development. 8.
pp.131-152.
Czaika, M. and Neumayer, E., 2017. Visa restrictions and economic globalisation. Applied
Geography. 84. pp.75-82.
Cole, M.A., Elliott, R.J. and Zhang, L., 2017. Foreign direct investment and the
environment. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 42. pp.465-487.
Bitzenis, A., 2016. The Balkans: foreign direct investment and EU accession. Routledge.
Buettner, T., Overesch, M. and Wamser, G., 2018. Anti profit-shifting rules and foreign direct
investment. International Tax and Public Finance.25(3). pp.553-580.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Galli, B.J., 2019. A shared leadership approach to transformational leadership theory: Analysis
of research methods and philosophies. In Scholarly Ethics and Publishing: Breakthroughs in
Research and Practice (pp. 751-790). IGI Global.
Gog, M., 2015. Case study research. International Journal of Sales, Retailing & Marketing. 4(9).
pp.33-41.

APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Questionnaire
What age group you are belong to ?
25 to 30 years
30 to 35 years
35 to 40 years
40 years above
How long you are working with the company?
2 years
3 years
5 years
5 years above
What are the challenges has been faced by the globalisation?
Increased the creativity
lowered cost for goods and services
job mobility
loss of cultural
western dominance
What is your opinion about the current trends of the globalisation in respect to foreign direct
investment?
Satisfied
Highly satisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied
Are you agreed about the impact of globalisation in respect to HR functions of businesses with
the increasing foreign direct investment?
Agreed
Disagree
Neutral

what are the challenges faced by the HR department with increasing and adopting the foreign
direct investment?
Reduction in cost
Policy implications
Undeveloped legal system
Unpredictable foreign economy
Log Book
Name:
Project title: Managing a successful business project
Date:
Update on weekly research/tasks achieved
Points to consider:
What have you completed?
Research
Did you fulfil task requirements?
Yes
Are you on track and within deadlines set?
Yes
Did you need to make any changes to your project management plan?
No
Any risks and/or issues identified?
Points to consider:
Did you identify risks/issues with a lack of skills required for undertaking research/tasks?
No
Did you identify any additional risks/issues that have an impact on the project management plan?
No
Problems encountered
Points to consider:
What barriers did
you face?
No any Barriers
How did you
overcome them?
New ideas and change of project direction
What have I learnt about myself this week?
Points to consider:

How did I feel when I had to deal with tasks/problems? Did I find it useful to complete the tasks?
Yes, I feel useful.
How well have I performed? What did I contribute? What can I improve on next week?
I have performed wee and I will improve Yes
How might this learning apply in the future?
In terms of research
Tasks planned for next week
Points to consider:
Which tasks are priority?
Data Collection
Have you set aside sufficient time for completion?
Yes
Project plan status
to date (on, ahead,
behind)
Supervisor comments to address
Performance Review
Performance Review
 What was the project supposed to accomplish?
 Research aims and Objectives.
 “To study the positive economic, culture and ethics impact of globalisation in respect to HR
functions of businesses with the increasing foreign direct investment”. A study on Debenhams.
 Did the project succeed in its aims? How do you know? Specifically, please outline any evaluation
and assessment undertaken.
 Yes. Through its deadline.
 What things do you think worked well and why? Evaluate all aspects of the project (e.g. initial inception,
project activities and project outcomes) from a range of perspectives.
 Selection of Research methodologies is done well.
 What problems emerged during the project and how were they tackled? Was there timely identification of
issues and resolution during the project process?
 No any problems.
 What did you learn from undertaking the project?
 Reliability and viability of data in research.
 How would you rate your performance as Project Manager?
 10/8
 What strengths and weaknesses of your performance did you identify?
 Strength- learning skills
 Weaknesses- difficulties in collecting data
 How will this inform and support your continuous professional development?
 Email.