Globalisation's Impact on ASDA's Corporate Structure Analysis

This report examines the profound impact of globalisation on the corporate structures of multinational organizations, using ASDA as a case study. The research delves into the various facets of globalisation, including its influence on political, economic, social, and technological factors, and how these elements shape the operational strategies of international businesses. The report outlines the challenges faced by ASDA in managing its corporate structure across diverse markets, offering an in-depth analysis of the complexities and opportunities that arise from operating in a globalised environment. The objectives include understanding corporate structures in international markets, assessing globalisation's impact on ASDA, identifying management challenges, and determining strategies for gaining a competitive edge. The report includes a literature review of corporate structures, the impact of globalisation, and an analysis of ASDA's background, rationale, aims, objectives and ethical implications.

Research Paper
Requirements

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
Overview of the research............................................................................................................1
Background and overview of the company.................................................................................2
Rationale and significance of research........................................................................................2
Aims and objectives....................................................................................................................3
Ethical Implications....................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER:2 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................3
Understanding corporate structure for running business successfully in international market. .3
Ascertaining the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of ASDA................................5
Identifying the challenges faced by ASDA in managing its corporate structure........................5
Determining strategies through which ASDA can build its effective corporate structure to gain
global competitive advantages....................................................................................................6
CHAPTER:3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................7
CHAPTER 4: Data analysis and interpretation ............................................................................10
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................18
REFLECTION..........................................................................................................................18
RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
.......................................................................................................................................................21

TOPIC: "To analyse the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of multinational
organisations and challenges they face".
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Overview of the research
Research is the important aspect which help to improve the knowledge. This will
provides an opportunity to grab the knowledge about the topic. Globalisation is the process of
doing business across the domestic boundaries. This will bring integration of an organisation
with other companies, people and government which is prevail under different nations. This will
work as interconnection between the different market of nations (Epstein, 2018) . It is wise
concept which provides an opportunity to the business to operate their business activities at large
level. There are various benefits which are associated with the concept of globalisation such as
attainment of the economies of scale, high market share, new target market and building high
brand image. Customers are attracted towards the multinational organisation and this will
provides an opportunity to such organisation setup their business and each sufficient amount of
profits. On the other hand, through the concept of the globalisation benefit is not only
ascertained by the organisation. This will have positive impact upon nation too. It provides
opportunity to the government officials to earn sufficient amount of money which is further used
in the development of the nation (Hanefeld, 2015) .
Globalisation have both kind of impacts upon the corporate structure of the organisation.
This can be positive or negative, totally depends upon the situation. Corporate structuring is
refers as the different departments functioning within an organisation for the overall completion
and attainment of the organisational objectives. The different type of departments which are
working within the organisation are named as Human Resource, Marketing, finance etc. All
these have their different role and functioning and having their own different contribution behind
the success of the organisation. If the positive conditions are persist within an organisation then
this will have positive impact for ex. Human resources are available at economic rate in the
international country then this will help to recruit the new and talented employees at lower rate
and grab more amount of profits. If the situation changes while organisation globalise and
instances created where political instability arises then this will negatively impacts the
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organisational working and the decision from the mangers side of the each and every department
in respect of their functioning (Zajda, 2015).
There are many challenges which are faced by the organisation while they globalise their
business operation's in some different countries. The impact of the factors upon each and every
organisation is depends upon the size and scope of the organisation. In general each and every
organisation irrespective of their size and scope have to face the challenges . The common
challenges which can be faced by the organisation is due to the presence of the external factors in
negative manner. These factors are named as Political, economical, social, legal etc. These can
be understood in the form that if culture is different then the consumption habits of the local
people is different. So, not possible to match with their requirements which results into the
creation of dissatisfaction among them in relation to the services of an organisation (Hopper,
Lassou and Soobaroyen, 2017).
Background and overview of the company
ASDA is British supermarket retailer and having their headquarter in West Yorkshire.
This organisation is founded in 1949. The creation of this organisation is done when the
supermarket owning Asquith family merged with Associated Dairies companies of Yorkshire.
Afterwards this organisation expand their operations in south England in between 1970 and
1980's. This organisation is listed on London Stock Exchange until 1999 when it is acquired by
Walmart of the around 6.7 billion (French, 2015). It is second largest supermarket chain in
Britain between 2003 and 2014 in terms of market share. Right now, the organisation have their
operations in more than 633 locations. There are large number of products in which ASDA deals
financial services, Grocery and general merchandise. The total number of employees working
within an organisation is 165000. ASDA is subsidiary in nature and Walmart is its parent
company. This organisation is very big in nature and having their operations too many countries.
Rationale and significance of research
The main aim behind the selection of this topic is about analyse the impact of
globalisation on the corporate structure of an organisation and the challenges associated with the
working in the diverse situations. It is wide concept and includes deep research and provides an
opportunity to the learner as well as researcher regarding enhancing the knowledge about the
concept of globalisation and having is positive or negative impact over the business activities and
corporate structure. Globalisation is one of the important concept which has hige contribution in
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the success of the many organisations (KiM and Caporaso, 2016). Simultaneously they have to
face the high amount of risks but adoption of effective approach help them to continue
effectively and attain sustainable growth. The main purpose of conducting this research is to
identify the opportunities and the challenges associated with the topic of globalisation (Zeitun,
Temimi and Mimouni, 2017). This will help researcher to grab the knowledge about the issues
which are faced by an organisation in different nations and the determinant of the ways which
help to overcome the same. Identification of knowledge in respect of all thee aspects help to
attain overall organisational objectives within stipulated period of time.
Aims and objectives
Aim "To analyse the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of
multinational organisations and challenges they face". A study on
ASDA.
Objectives
•To understand the concept of corporate structure for running business successfully in
international market.
•To ascertain the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of ASDA.
•To identify challenges faced by ASDA in managing its corporate structure.
•To determine strategies through which ASDA can build its effective corporate structure to
gain global competitive advantages.
Ethical Implications
While carrying out the research project it is important to follow the ethical considerations as
this will further help in marinating the authenticity of the work done. While selecting the sources
for the data it is ensured that only such modes are selected which can be trusted and are true.
Also the confidentiality of the respondents is maintained of the respondents who were a part of
this investigation (Homann, 2016).
CHAPTER:2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Understanding corporate structure for running business successfully in international market.
According to Michie, (2017) Corporate structure is a set of different departments which
work together in order to achieve organisational objectives. Corporate structure is often known
as organisation structure in which a company divides functions into various parts or departments.
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This structure is set by top level management of an organisation and is set according to the size,
scope and aim of the company. Corporate structure of international market is a bit different from
domestic businesses as the requirement of these companies are different.
There are various structures which are appropriate for international market and they are
International division structure, Geographical division structure and Matrix division structure.
International division structure is considered as the most appropriate assembly of companies. In
this structure various division are divided on the basis of functions as well as on the basis of the
location. For example, ASDA is a multinational organisation which has its business units in
various states of Europe. While deciding the corporate structure of this company, top level
managers will distribute entire business units in little chunks of functions and locations such as
Marketing department (France, UK, Mexico), Finance department (France, UK, Mexico) etc.
This corporate structure is selected by various companies which operates in international market
as it helps in preventing duplication of activities. This structure or strategy helps in creating
quick response to environmental changes so that they can deal in various markets (Galbreath,
2017).
Another corporate structure is common in international market is Geographic division
structure. This assembly is different from other structures as in this case despite of functions,
employees are divided according to their geographical area. This assembly is set when
management of the company aims at gain advantage from economies from scale concept. For
example, ASDA is an international company and if this company uses this structure then they
divide their employees such as Marketing manager, finance manager according to their
geographical area such as Marketing head (France, UK, Mexico), Finance head (France, UK,
Mexico). This structure is used by various organisations as this helps in gaining advantage of
economies of scale and it also has disadvantage of potential duplication of work as similar
activities are being performed at different locations.
Matrix Division structure is another assembly which whole organisation in several
matrices. This structure provides advantage of functional, product and geographical groups all in
one. This structure is best suitable for large organisation which has multiple departments in
multiple locations. For example, in this structure all the employees and functions are divided in
matric such as France (Marketing, Finance and HRM) and UK (Marketing, Finance and HRM).
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This structure is highly used has it helps om making each group or matric responsible for their
own functions.
Ascertaining the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of ASDA
According to Perraton, (2015) globalisation is a concept of interaction and integration with
international market. The impact of globalisation can be best ascertained by analysing the factors
which impacts ASDA which are political, economic, technological and social. Political factors
are the influences which includes political stability, political issues, tax rates etc. ASDA is a
multinational organisation which has a chain of supermarkets across Europe. ASDA has a
positive impact when it comes of political factors of globalisation as ASDA globalise their
functions in Europe which is stable political economy. Political factors also have a few
drawbacks as this company deals in few companies of Asia which has unstable political structure
due to which they have to face issues such as tax taxation liability, numerous regulations etc.
According to Geppert, Matten and Williams, (2016) economic factors of globalisation
are the influences which a company faces when they deal in some foreign country. ASDA deals
in numerous countries such as Japan, China etc. which has strict policies regarding foreign
investments. While working in these countries, ASDA has to face various issues such as interest
rate, exercise duty, various taxation policies etc. Economic stability can be judged by the net per
capital income of a country by which ASDA can analyse whether they can survive in a specific
country or not. Another factor which can help in analyse impact of globalisation is social factors.
Social factors are the influences which are related with the community and society of a country.
ASDA deals in various countries which has different cultures, values and beliefs. For example,
ASDA deals in UK and in Japan. In UK, society is much liberal but when it comes to Japan,
society is much conservative due to which this company has to develop strategies which are
suitable for all the countries. Another factor which influences ASDA due to globalisation is
technological factors. These factors are related with the technological advancements and up
gradations. When it comes to technology, ASDA must adopt technologies which can be used by
them at international market. ASDA is a company which has various supermarkets across UK
and other nations. This company must have technological equipment which can help them in
competing at international market. This factor impacts ASDA as it results in increased cost.
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Identifying the challenges faced by ASDA in managing its corporate structure
According to Bakan and Yildirimci, (2015) challenges faced while managing corporate
structure includes issues related with management and organisational goals. The firstmost
challenge which is faced by ASDA is conflicts which are caused by departmental loyalty. This
challenge creates conflicts between departments as in this departments gets too competitive and
feel that they should compete with other functional units which overall have a negative impact
on the company as the aim of a company should be competing with other organisations in the
market and not competing with among themselves. International market is a market place which
is different from domestic market due to which it is important for them to bring change in their
management so that work can be done effectively. In process of bringing changes in the
management, companies face various issues such as strain in organisational structure. For
example, ASDA is a multinational company which deals in various countries and in order to
compete in international market they constantly make changes in their corporate structure so that
they can attain the competitive advantage but in this process of bringing changes various issues
or challenges are faced by these organisations which are increased costs, unequal management,
conflicts among departments and many more.
Communication is also a challenge which is faced by companies like ASDA while
managing their corporate structure. Managing corporate structure is an activity which has to be
implemented when organisation structure is change by the management of a company. This
management structure of a company changes due to specific reasons which mainly includes
globalisation of activities. It is very important for an organisation to communicate the company
goals behind restructuring and managing the corporate structure of a company. When top level
management set the goals for management restructuring, they must communicate those goals so
that they can provide their input as well.
Determining strategies through which ASDA can build its effective corporate structure to gain
global competitive advantages
According to Ogwezzy, (2015) strategies are the ways by which an organisation can build
their effective corporate structure in order to gain competitive edge in the market. ASDA deals in
retail market industry which has various super markets across Europe and other nations. In order
to build an appropriate corporate structure, it is important for this organisation to adopt various
strategies so that this process can be done at ease. The first strategy which should be adopted by
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companies in order to manage their restructuring is an open door policy. According to this
policy, company should provide a scope in which employees can communicate their problems
with HR of the company so that they attain effectiveness. They must communicate on regular
basis, they should emphasise on listening concerns and ideas, they should update personnel and
corporate changes.
Another strategy which must be use by ASDA is to set boundaries and provide direction.
In this case of developing a corporate strcutuire, it is important for companies to set boundaries
for employees so that effectiveness and efficiency can be attained. By providing the direction to
the company’s employees, an organisation can attain the advantage of aware employees which
have all the information regarding their corporate structure. Providing training is also an
important way while setting or developing a corporate strategy. Employees and other lower level
staff of the company should be provided training so that they can be aware of all the
consequences and benefits of the restructuring of the organisation.
Jha and Varkkey, (2017) says that corporate retreat is also an effective way of developing
corporate structure. In this way, interoffice relationships are also facilitated. In this case, ASDA
can arrange offsite team building activities where they can provide them information about the
changes which has to be faced by the organisation due to management restructuring.
Above strategies or ways can be used by ASDA while developing their corporate strategy
in order to gain advantage in international market.
CHAPTER:3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This is another important chapter of the research through which the data is collected on the
research topic. There are a number of methods that are available in with the researcher from here
the information can be gathered. Distinct techniques are used for evaluating analysing the
collected information and hence the conclusions are made (Webster, 2016)Selection of the best
suitable technique is done by comparing the different options that are available with the
researcher. Every method has its own advantages and disadvantages and hence while choosing
the method for research it has to be given care that such option is chosen which has maximum
benefits and gives the most relevant data.
Research philosophy – It is one of the crucial part of research methodology. It provides
assistance to the collected information by supporting it with the authenticate source which makes
the data valuable. It provides researcher a belief that in what manner a data should be gathered.
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There are two major sub divisions of this particular research method which is positivism and
interpretivist. Under the positivism it is believed that reality is stable and can be discussed
through object viewpoint. The other is the Interpretivism philosophy which is contend that only
through the subjective interpretation of intervention in reality can that reality be fully understood.
In this particular research the second approach which is Interpretivism has been used as it is
appropriate to carry out a research in which qualitative data has been collected (Graham, Leary
and Roberts, 2015) Apart from this it will also support the data that is collected from the
secondary sources like books and journals.
Approaches – this is another important part of the research methods in which the researcher
has to select among the inductive and deductive tactics. Both the ways are distinct from one
another as under the basic difference among them are under the deductive approach the already
established theories are tested on the other hand in the inductive approach a totally new concept
is generated from the already available theories. In the following report inductive approach has
been used as qualitative data is collected from various sources from which a good understanding
can be developed and can be support through the theories.
Quantitative and qualitative methods – This is a separate concept under the research
methodology as under this the researcher has to decide whether to opt for data in numbers or in
quantity. Both the type of information has their own value and create understanding to the user in
different manner. Quantitate data is more of theoretical and contain a detail information on the
topic of the research (Ducassy and Montandrau, 2015) All the valuable aspects of the issue are
discussed in detail so that the user can understand the topic thoroughly. It contains the reviews of
different authors on the topic which helps in analysing what different individuals has to say on a
common topic. On the other hand quantitative data is one in which the topic is discussed
supported with values in numbers. it is easy to analyses and compare. In this particular research
we have used qualitative data as from same the topic will be discussed in deep detail which will
help in getting a complete knowledge of the topic. When a particular issue is discussed from
various point of views it become easy to reach on the conclusion.
Method of data collection – there are basically two important methods of data collection
which is primary and secondary data. Primary data is one which is collected for the first time and
is fresh for the user. It is gathered from the sources like conducting interview observation etc. On
the other hand, the other source is secondary way which is more convenient and is less costly.
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Under this the researcher go through the information which is already available collected in past.
It is a less time consuming method and can provide information in bulk. In the following report
researcher has used both primary and secondary method as it is a vast topic and need to be
evaluated in all the possible ways so that user can reach to the conclusion (Abdallah and Ismail,
2017) Under the primary method use of questionnaire is done in which sample size is kept of 40.
Thereafter in the secondary method use of literature review is done in which views of different
authors is analysed and discussed.
Sampling methods – this is a method through which the respondents are selected to
carry out the questionnaire and it has to be taken care that appropriate method is used to select
the samples as this will decide the quality of data collected. There are different ways of sampling
like probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Under the probability sampling all the
samples has equal chances of getting selected and the other is non probability sampling in which
a set pattern is used to select the respondent. In this particular research probabilistic sampling is
used as this will give the true data about the research topic (Ben-Nasr, Boubaker and Rouatbi,
2015)
Questionnaire – It is an effective mode of data collection in which questions related to
the research topic are framed and then are distributed among the different samples, they then
respond to same and then in last the information collected is analysed. It is an effective mode as
through this the data can be converted into graph which is easy to interpret and hence results are
easily evaluated.
Aim "To analyse the impact of globalisation on corporate structure of
multinational organisations and challenges they face". A study on
ASDA.
Questionnaire
1. Are you aware with the concept of globalisation?
 Yes
 No
2. What impact does globalisation have on corporate structure?
 Positive
 Negative
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