Positive Impacts of Globalisation on AVIVA plc: A Business Analysis

This report examines the positive economic, cultural, and ethical impacts of globalisation on various business functions within AVIVA plc, a multinational insurance company. The research includes a literature review on globalisation, its effects, and strategies for managing its impacts. A project management plan, encompassing cost, quality, resources, scope, communication, time, and risk, is detailed. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze the impacts on functions such as HR, marketing, and accounting. The report also presents recommendations for AVIVA plc to leverage globalisation and includes a reflection on the researcher's learning and skills development throughout the project.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Design aims and objectives....................................................................................................1
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................2
Brief explanation of PMP by including time, scope, cost, communication, time, quality and
resources.................................................................................................................................4
Discuss Gantt Chart and WBS...............................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
By using qualitative and quantitative approaches suitable for accomplishing set standards
small scale research is conducted...........................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
Evaluate research and data by using different tools and techniques....................................11
Recommendations................................................................................................................18
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................19
Reflection.............................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

TITLE
“To analyse the positive economic, cultural, and ethical impacts of globalisation on the
different functions of business like operations, marketing, HR, accounting within the
organisation”. A case study on AVIVA plc.
INTRODUCTION
Globalisation refers to the increasing interdependence of world's culture, economics as
well as population by doing international trade in technology, goods and services, people,
investment and information (Basu, 2015). It is termed as a interconnectedness of business as well
as people over the globe which leads the global integration of economic, political, culture and
ethical which positively impacts on the several business functions. Globalisation facilitates better
competitive positions along with the lower cost of operating as well as gain attraction of
maximum number of customers. For this assignment AVIVA plc is chosen which is a British
multinational company that headquartered in London, United Kingdom. As it is a leading general
insurer, leading life and pension providers that was founded in 2000. in this report, aim of
research is to examine the positive impacts of internationalisation on various business functions
for which a researcher prepares aim and objectives and prepare project management plan by
considering several aspects. Work breakdown structure an Gantt chart is also used for preparing
timelines for project completion and use qualitative and quantitative methods of research will be
used for gathering information on this topic. Thus, researcher made appropriate
recommendations on the impacts of globalisation and facilitate reflection on skills and
knowledge.
TASK 1
Design aims and objectives
Project overview:
Research project is based on the impacts of globalisation that positively influence the
different functions of business or AVIVA plc and these are in terms of economic, political,
ethical and cultural. It helps in minimising the operating cost and create flexible environment at
workplace and operates all the business functions effectively (Frankenberger, 2016). This will
assist AVIVA plc to analyse the positive results if globalisation on the operations of various
business functions such as HR, accounting, operating and marketing.
1

This research will help Vodafone Group to analyse the issues, challenges and measures to meet
them also the extent to which it can influence the organisational culture.
Overview of AVIVA Plc:
It is considered as a British insurance company that has around 33 million customers
across in 16 nations and it is considered as a largest company of insurance that serves across the
globe. As of 2020, AVICA plc have employed around 31700 workers in order to facilitate
different services to their customers such as life insurance, pensions and general insurance.
Aim of the project:
The main aim of the project is to analyse the impacts of globalisation in terms of
economic, cultural and ethical that positively influence the functions of business such as
marketing, accounting, human resource and so on.
Objectives of project:
Some of the objectives of research report that need to be accomplished by the researcher
are as follows:
 To develop a basic understanding about the globalisation.
 To ascertain positive and negative impacts of globalisation on the various functions of
AVIVA plc.
 To evaluate several strategies that can be used by AVIVA plc in order to minimise the
negative impacts of globalisation and success in the competitive market.
Questions:
 What do you mean by globalisation?
 What are the impacts of globalisation and how it impacts on the different functions?
 What kind of strategies can be formulating by the AVIVA plc in order to get success in
the competitive market and remain competitive?
Literature Review
Basic understanding about the globalisation
According to Plessis, globalisation describes the interdependence of the economies of the
world, their culture and population on each other as it has allowed cross border trades for various
goods and services, the flow of investment, the flow of technology, easier movement of people
and information. Different countries enter into economic partnerships with each other with the
aim to facilitate the development of their economies. The effect of globalisation is considered to
2

be complex and politically influenced because they have a direct impact on certain groups which
are existing and operating in a country. Due to globalisation the interconnectedness and
interdependence of the countries on each other increases. This can have both positive and
negative impacts on them. One of the most visible impacts of globalisation is an increase in the
economic exchanges and trade among the countries. To facilitate this various free trade policies
are also accelerated. In addition to this globalisation has an impact on the culture as well, such as
coffee is considered to be from Ethiopia but is consumed throughout the world. It may lead to
cultural loss, economic loss to the in-house companies as well as adverse consequences on the
environment. But for the overall development and to ensure success it is important to expand
business operations and to adopt the changes in the wider business environment.
Impacts of globalisation and how it impacts on the different functions
According to Ramachandra, globalisation has offered various advantages to the companies
and the economies as it enables them to either shift to the mass production or to offer customized
and value-added products to the growing customer base. The globalisation has expanded the
market with which the organisation can become productive and profitable but to cope up with
this they need to restructure their processes and offerings. It has shifted the focus towards the
infrastructure, technology, methodologies used by the companies as with the improvement in
these factors the organisations can easily manage the change. With the inflow of the funds as a
foreign direct investment, the level of competition has increased because businesses are provided
with more funds. Also, it allows businesses to enter the market. Such investment put various
challenges before the companies like adoption of new technology which has an influence on
existing human resources of the organisation as they may not be competent enough to adopt the
technology. Due to this, the companies need to arrange training sessions for them which increase
their overall cost. On the other hand, it offers various opportunities for the employees to grow
and develop efficiently coping up with the changes. Managing the increased competition leads to
improvement in the existing processes through which the quality of the offerings will
improve which ultimately satisfy the needs and want of the customer. This increases the roles
and responsibilities of the production department along with managing the economies of scale
they also have to manage the quality of the offerings. With this, the company can make their
product competitive against other companies throughout the world.
3

Strategies used to minimise the negative impacts of globalisation and success in the competitive
market
According to George, globalisation has a various impact on the organisation as well as on
the economies which has to be managed by them effectively by formulating various strategies
and taking necessary actions. The organisations for reducing the adverse impact must take into
consideration the competition by analysing the upstream and downstream vendors, capabilities of
the organisation, resources held by them, and many more. With the globalisation different
companies enter into the existing market and to deal with them various strategies such as making
the workforce compatible, conducting research for the market, analysing the customers behavior,
etc. must be focussed upon. By providing sufficient training to the Employees they can be made
capable of managing various changes within the organisation. The analysis of the market in
terms of impact of various internal and external factors on the operations of the organisation,
along with the prevailing competitive situations must be undertaken so that its influence can be
identified and reduced. Accordingly, various strategies to manage such impacts can be
formulated. Apart from this strategy of taking customer feedback must be emphasized as the
globalisation has an impact on their taste and preferences as well. With this, the company can
offer their product and services as per their needs and wants which will help them to be
successful in the competitive market.
Brief explanation of PMP by including time, scope, cost, communication, time, quality and
resources
Project management plan is termed as a process in which various phases are involves such as
initiation, design, organising, monitoring as well as controlling and closing of project activities
that is to be completed in an effective and efficient way (Kiessling, 2018). It is an essential
requirement for ensuring that project planning and direction for the achievement of strategic
objectives as well as targets. It is related to the scope, risk, quality, cost, communication and so
many aspects that are essential while planning and managing a research project.
Some of the measures of project management plan are discussed with respect of
researcher and AVIVA plc are as follows:
Cost: It is the most essential consideration of every kind of activities as it considers the
approximation of overall project which should be required to accomplish goals and objectives
effectively. It is necessary for both researcher and manager for which investigator estimated the
4

actual cost for research purpose which is £7000 approximate that helps in conducting research in
an appropriate manner (Martinsuo, 2014). Whereas, project manager of AVIVA approximate
£50000 for completing all the activities and changes in an appropriate way as it is needed for
buying new assets, conducting training and development sessions, meeting the requirements of
information and resources as well as brings new and latest technologies. So that manager is able
to use or implement research data in their organisational strategies.
Quality: It is necessary for directing research activities this will assist in collecting more
reliable and accurate information towards the specific topic. As researcher use both the methods
as qualitative and quantitative for collecting real informations and facts. Whereas project
manager of AVIVA plc gets advantages of those accurate information to complete all tasks in the
certain time duration and within the set budget.
Resources: For the research project researcher as well as manager requires numerous
resources such as human, physical, financial as well as technological which assists in
accomplishing the goals of business and motivate employees for better performance (Taherdoost,
2018). The manager of AVIVA plc needs time, money, efforts as well as schedule and
techniques in order to satisfy customers requirements. Moreover, investigator needs finance,
internet connection of high speed, appropriate time as well as more efforts in order to gather
valuable and reliable informations.
Scope: As this kind of research has broad scope in future for doing the further
globalisation that aids in positive development of AVIVA plc and minimise negative aspects that
provides a lot of opportunities in future as well. Investigator have detail understanding about this
topic which helps other businesses for doing globalisation. Whereas, manager will be use or
implement appropriate strategies for reducing the barriers and negative impacts of globalisation
and succeed for long period of time.
Communication: For analyse the positive impacts of globalisation on the different
functions of businesses investigator conduct research and appoint team so that they need to be
communicate information clearly (Pearlson, 2016). For which they use telephones, emails etc. to
interact with team members and clients and manager of AVIVA plc can adopt oral and written
methods of communication so that they get appropriate feedbacks from employees.
5

Time: As the manager of AVIVA plc needs 2 months for executing all the strategies and
benefits of globalisation so that all these are managed in an effective and efficient way. Whereas,
researcher would needed 7 weeks for collecting actual informations in the certain period of time.
Risk: It is a common factor that are faced by the researcher as well as manager while
performing activities. As investigator may face issues related to the gathering inappropriate data
or fails to choose proper sample size that will lead in delay in performance (Zimmermann, 2018).
So that it impacts on manager as well because they are unable to manage things and fails to
implement appropriate strategies that helps in positive globalisation as well as it creates
dissatisfaction feeling among workers.
Discuss Gantt Chart and WBS
Work break down structure is defined as a deliverable oriented hierarchical structure
that assists in classifying the entire projects into smaller sections that are measurable
appropriately and it can be executed by the team of project in an adequate manner.
Decomposition of work assists in providing effective cost estimation and it have full control over
the business activities and it is termed as a beneficial for the manager and researcher (Pryke,
2016). By using work break down structure investigator determine actual timings of business
activities that includes the starting and ending time schedule. Whereas, project manager use
WBS in order to absolute entire tasks within the time frame in a cost effective and efficient way.
Gantt chart refers to the bar chart diagram that represents the proper schedule of tasks
and the time duration of each and every works which can be done through the use of Microsoft
Excel. It is considered as an essential tool that are used in the management of research project as
it permits people to track actual situation and status of project activities as well as highly support
to the completion of task in an effective manner within the time frame (Spender, 2017). It will
help researcher to gathers information and data on the specific topic within the certain period of
6

time along with the reducing delays. Although, the project manager use Gantt chart for analysing
the requirements of resources to complete the entire projects in the time-frame.
7

8

TASK 2
By using qualitative and quantitative approaches suitable for accomplishing set standards small
scale research is conducted
Research is defined as a systematic study that can be done towards the specific problem
which assists in describing, explaining, forecasting as well as controlling the information for
which the investigation is conducted (Vanclay, 2015). This can be done through the application
of different methods of research which includes qualitative and quantitative which have well
managed and defined properties of data collection.
Qualitative method: It is related to the collection of information as it is based on the
open ended questions which is to be gather from the participants and information are not in
quantity or numerical form. This helps investigator to know about the views and perceptions of
respondents as what they think and why. There are various methods of qualitative research which
are in used for collecting information such as interview, case study, focus group and so many
others (Ashtiani, 2017).
Quantitative method: It is totally based on the numerical form of data and information
which can be measured in the numbers. In this, researcher collects facts and figures which derive
the result of data collection and answerer facilitated with questions through which the methods of
research can be easily justified and it is based on the measurable variables of information. For
this the questionnaire and the static records are used for gathering information about the AVIVA
plc and shows them on charts and graphs (Guerra-Santin, 2015).
As the collection of data is necessary for conducting a research in a systematic way so the
researcher can be used two sources like primary and secondary in order to collect information.
Such as follows:
 Primary data sources: It is considered as a first-hand information that is to be collected
directly by the research from sample. As it is also known as a real time information that is
based on the specific requirement of investigator but that kind of source is costly and
time consuming to use. Some of the sources includes surveys, personal interviews,
questionnaire and so on.
 Secondary data source: It is already been collected by someone else that are refined and
redesign by the researchers according to their requirements or needs. Secondary source of
9

data collection is short as well as economic to use (Larson, 2016). These type of data is to
be collected through the journals, government publications as well as books.
Research philosophy:
Research philosophy is an activity that is taken into consideration by the researcher while
undertaking any research. Such a philosophy can be interpretivism and positivism. The
interpretivism philosophy facilitates to observe one's own understanding of the reality regarding
the research topic, while positivism facilitates to understand on the basis of studies carried out
for undertaking the research. For this research project, the researcher will be focusing on
positivism philosophy as with the help of this better understanding can be developed for the
research project and thus this will improve the quality of the outcomes.
Sampling:
Samples are to be chosen for gathering primary information from the staff members and
manager of company (Ozturk, 2016). It should be selected out of the large number of people as
researcher select the sample size of 40 for gathering information on a particular topic that shows
the overall population.
Questionnaire
Quantitative Questions
Q1) Since how many years you have been working for AVIVA plc?
a) 0-4 years
b) 5-8 years
c) More than 8 years
Q2) Are you satisfied with the globalisation of business?
a) Very Unsatisfied
b) Unsatisfied
c) Neutral
d) Satisfied
e) Very satisfied
Q3) Do you think that globalisation impacts positively on the business functions?
a) Strong Disagree
b) Disagree
c) Undecided
10