Analyzing Globalization's Influence on Marks and Spencer's HR

This research project investigates the multifaceted impact of globalization on the human resources of Marks and Spencer plc. The study begins with an introduction outlining the project's aims, objectives, research questions, and the rationale for selecting this specific topic, emphasizing the rapid growth of globalization and its relevance to businesses seeking international expansion. The literature review explores the concept of globalization, its advantages and disadvantages, and its specific effects on Marks and Spencer's operations. The research then delves into the positive economic, cultural, and ethical impacts of globalization on the company, the role of human resources in navigating globalization, and the barriers that can hinder its progress. The methodology section details the approach taken to gather and analyze data, followed by a comprehensive data analysis section. The report concludes with recommendations for Marks and Spencer and a personal reflective statement, offering insights into the research process and the student's learning experience.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

Table of Contents
TITLE:.............................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................3
Project description.......................................................................................................................3
Research Aims............................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives ...................................................................................................................3
Research Questions ....................................................................................................................4
Reasons for choosing this project...............................................................................................4
Activities and Time scales..........................................................................................................4
CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................6
CHAPTER3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................10
CHAPTER4: DATA ANALYSES................................................................................................12
CHAPTER5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION......................................................22
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................22
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................23
CHAPTER6: PERSONAL REFLECTIVE STATEMENT...........................................................23
Reflection..................................................................................................................................23
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................25
.......................................................................................................................................................26

TITLE:
“To identify the impact of positive economic, cultural and ethical impact of globalization
on human resources”. A study on Marks and Spencer plc.
CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION
Project description
Globalisation refers to the free movement of goods and services across boundaries. This
movement can be managed in a united manner. Further, it can be seen as a scheme to open the
global economy as well as associated growth in trade. Goods that were found in Western
countries can now be found across the globe (Nayak, 2016). Thus, globalisation of economy
simply indicates the interaction of country relating to production, trading and financial
transactions with developed industrialised countries of the world. Some factors of globalisation
are:-
 Permitting free flow of goods and services by removing trade barriers between countries.
 Creating environment for flow of capital between the countries.
 Allowing free flow of technology transfer.
Thus, the proponents of globalisation especially from the developed countries purposely
limit the definition of globalisation only in three components, i.e., unrestricted trade flows,
capital flows and technology flows. They do not want to include the free flow of labour in the
factors of globalisation set by them.
Research Aims
“To identify the impact of positive economic, cultural and ethical impact of globalization
on human resources”. A study on Marks and Spencer plc.
Research Objectives
 To study the concept of globalisation.
 To determine the favourable economic, cultural and ethical impact of globalisation on
Mark and Spencer.
 To study the role of human resources in globalisation.
 To study the barriers of globalisation which leads to negative impact for Mark and
Spencer.

Research Questions
 Are you aware about the concept of globalisation?
 What will be the impact of globalisation on economic, cultural and ethics of Mark and
Spencer?
 What is the role of human resources in globalisation?
 What are the different obstacles of globalisation in Mark and Spencer?
Reasons for choosing this project
The rationale or reason behind choosing this project was that the concept of globalisation
is growing and rising at rapid rate (Monshipouri, Welch and Kennedy, 2017). It is acting as an
opportunity for the company to grow and expand the businesses into the global world for the
purpose of establishing global presence and earn higher amount of profitability and revenue. The
organisation which will be considered for this research is Mark and Spencer which has initiated
its business operations from the year 1884 and it deals in retail industry. This company is
operating at global level and has strong goodwill and brand awareness. So this has put focus on
identifying and analysing the external opportunities for the business organisation such that the
desired research aims and objectives can be attained effectively and efficiently.
Activities and Time scales
In the research, there are combinations of different activities which takes place. Such
activities are helps in meeting the research aims and objectives effectively and efficiently
(Melluish, 2014). The following are the different activities discussed below:
Activities Time required to be taken by each activity
(weeks)
Introduction 2
Setting aims and objectives 3
Literature review 3
Research methodology 5
Collection of data 4
Analysis of data 2

Conclusion and
recommendations
3
Submission of final report 2
Gantt chart: This chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates project schedule. This chart
shows the start and finish dates of various elements of project that includes resources, tasks and
dependencies (Lumby and Foskett, 2016). Henry Gantt, an American mechanical engineer
designed the Gantt chart. This chart is widely used in project management. These charts are
useful in planning the projects and defining the sequence of tasks that require completion. Gantt
chart identifies tasks that may be executed in parallel and those that cannot be started or finished
until other tasks are completed. This chart shows the slack time or additional time for completion
of a task.

CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Globalisation
According to Melina Kolb, 2019, Globalisation is the process of integration of economies
which result in more social, political and economical interaction across cultural and national
boundaries. It fosters free trade and spread of information, technology and job across boundary
lines of a nation. This leads to more interdependence of nations and represent a trend towards
creation of single world culture (Tu, 2014).
Advantages – globalisation helps in creating more employment by providing better
opportunities for innovation and creativity at international level. Encouragement to free flow of
goods and services, reduces cost of production and providing better quality products at low

prices. It also promote improvement in standard of living through increased diversification and
economic expansion. Globalisation also providing social justice and reduce chances of labour
exploitation by providing more freedom to labour to work in different countries at international
level.
Disadvantages – globalisation has increased the level of competition globalisation thus
have a negative impact on local economies and lead to exploitation of developing countries. It is
more beneficial wealthy and developed countries and increase the economic gap between rich
and people through raising inequality of income (Steger, 2017). It also lead to unequal
distribution of resources and make it easier to cheat people by using improper or fake
communication channel. Globalisation also lead to degradation of environment and spread of
deadly diseases. It lead to creation of a new political system which is having a negative influence
on legislation and policy of nations resulted in more chances of political or social conflicts.
To determine the favourable economic, cultural and ethical impact of globalisation on
Mark and Spencer
According to Mahmood Monshipouri, 2019, Mark and Spencer is a multinational British
retailer dealing in high quality clothing, food products and home products .Being an international
company, globalisation process has affected its business operations to a great extent.
Globalisation lead to wide and rapid spread of goods, services and technologies growing scale of
cross – border trade and increased interdependence of world economies. It lead to development
of science and technologies helps in increasing the phase of growth for all economies of world. It
reduces the transportation and communication cost resulted in cost reduction for international
trade and helps in organising and coordinating global production which is very beneficial for
Mark and Spencer to work at international level. Globalisation is also having considerable
impact on culture through transmission of ideas, values and opinion across the world to intensify
social relations between different civilization of world. Globalisation has make it necessary for
Mark and Spencer to understand the values, laws, culture and ethical standards of its own as well
as of other countries where its subsidiaries and other branches are operating. Globalisation has
resulted in Internationalization, liberalization, universalization and westernisation of business
processes which lead to increase in profit and provides more opportunities for development and
advancement.

Mark and Spencer is enjoying all the favourable outcomes of globalisation in form of
easy trade facility across different countries. Liberalisation which is a part of globalisation has
reduced documentation process and other legal formalities to expand a business in different parts
of world providing an opportunity for expansion in target market. Globalisation has lead to
advancement in technology and information which is creating more opportunities for MNC's and
also reducing cost of production thus increasing overall profit (Soltes and Gavurova, 2015).
Globalisation also provide better quality employees more skilled and qualified at lower prices
thus again contributes in success of organisation. Integration of economy and reach to more
cultural community provide a better chance to make use of innovation and creativity to attract
more customers and to increase sales and future growth.
To study the role of human resources in globalisation
According to Elisabeth Natter, 2019, Globalisation has a significant effect on human
resource of any company because it has increased level of competition, thus make it necessary to
have best quality workforce. Mark and Spencer is working at global level so they should hire,
recruit and train there manpower in such way that they can easily operate at several countries
with varying cultural. HRM department need to be more flexible to to include cultural
differences, technological development and foreign regulations. With globalisation it become
necessary for HRM department to acquire and develop new talent to efficiently operate at global
level. It become viable for Mark and Spenser to provide timely and adequate training to
employees to improve their skills and knowledge so that they can develop a product which can
compete with other products across the world. Current staff of Mark ans Spencer is providing
great support in making it possible to work effectively at global level. Mark and Spencer provide
proper assistance to its staff, work permits and housing facility is also provided to employees
with proper training on cultural issue and language acquisition.
The ability of any organisation to move in a new market at global level highly depends on
its staff. It not only required proper training and development of workforce but proper
knowledge of different culture and languages is also required. It is the responsibility of HRM to
consider all culture and social aspects of people working in their organisation (Soini and
Birkeland, 2014). In Mark and Spencer, people from different background and culture are getting

equal treatment, and a very healthy and comfortable atmosphere which helps in increasing their
efficiency.
To study the barriers of globalisation which leads to negative impact for Mark and Spencer
According to Sarah Powell, 2019, Globalisation lead to progress and expansion of global
market but still it faces some barriers. The reason for these barriers are the protection and control
that every nation wants to have to protect it from negative impact of Internationalization. Efforts
are made to implement complete liberalisation of market but still some barriers face by all
multinational companies, like Mark and Spencer , some of them are explained below:
 Cultural barriers: It is necessary for all organisation to understand the local market and
taste and preference of people before starting working there. Difference in culture is the
biggest hindrance faced by Mark and Spencer while working at global level (Tarasanski,
2017). As it is quite difficult and complicated to understand and implement different
cultural concept in an single organisation. A particular product or advertisement can
offend a customer in one country while can get praised by people of other countries.
Hence it is quite necessary to understand the social and cultural view and opinion of
people in which companies subsides and branches are operated.
 Technology barriers: All countries of world are not at equal level when their technology
advancement are compared. Some are very advanced and are becoming completely
online whole some are quite backward (Zajda, 2015). Globalisation is working in this
field to make all countries reach at same level by transfer and spread of technology, but
still due to internal issues and personal wars exist in some countries, it is not possible to
integrate all parts of world and to make them as advanced as other developed countries.
Mark and Spenser is also needed to keep in mind that whether the nation in which they
are operating is technically advanced or not as it directly effect the promotional activities
and other operation. In a technical backward area online advertisement is never
successful but the same is very effective in developed countries.
 Legal obstacles: While operating at international level it become necessary to follow
legal laws and regulation of all concerned nation which is quite difficult. There are many
laws which effect operation of any business, like labours laws, consumer protection act,
minimum wage rate, etc. These laws and regulations create hindrance in performance of

organisation by increasing there cost of labour and also create pressure to provide best
quality product for providing customer satisfaction. Mark and Spencer is also facing
some hindrance while having compliance with these labour laws as it increase the cost of
labour which will reduce the profit margin of organisation.
CHAPTER3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology is a process used for data collection or collection of information
required for decision making (Lane, 2017). It includes different research techniques like surveys,
interviews and include both present and past information collected from different sources.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy is a basically a belief deals with source and nature of knowledge
having its main focus on techniques used for collection and analysis of data. This philosophy has
many branches, the main philosophies concerned with business studies are Pragmatism,
Positivist and Interpretivist (Igarashi and Saito, 2014). For conducting this research, use of
Pragmatic research philosophy is made. In this philosophy research questions are the most
important source or determinant of research. It can make use of both deductive or inductive
approach. It can integrate more than type of research strategies and make use of multiple
research methods. Hence it is best suitable philosophy for this research and provides a middle
path between positivism and interpretivism philosophy.
Research approach
it is based on nature of problem needed to addressed or solve through the current research
(Goryakin and et. al., 2015). It is basically a plan or procedure that contains detailed steps needed
to follow for better data collections, analysis and interpretations. It is mainly of three types :
deductive, inductive and abductive research approach. For concerned research, Deductive
research approach is used as it best suited with pragmatist and provide a interpretation of
different concepts of corporate social responsibilities.
Time Horizon
It is mainly used for designing research and it is of two type, Longitudinal and cross
sectional (Deresky, 2017). For current research cross sectional time horizon is used. As per this
approach focus of research is only on prevailing situation and no correlation is identified
between different time periods.
Research methods

There are mainly two methods for collections of data: Qualitative and quantitative. For
this research Qualitative method is used which provide subjective data. For that purpose a
questionnaire is prepared to get information about views and opinions of respondent.
Data source – this shows the origin or source of data from where or through which data
is collected by researcher (Der-Karabetian, Cao and Alfaro, 2014).
Primary source
It is original source of data and data collected is the first-hand fresh data collected by
researcher for a specific project,by making its own efforts. There are various methods and
techniques for collection of data from primary source like surveys, personal interviews,
observations, questionnaire and different experiments. Collection of data from primary source is
expensive and also a time consuming process. For the completion of this research project, the
researcher can use questionnaire top collect the information and data from different people.
Secondary source
It is mainly refers to existing source of data, which are already collected by some other
researcher (Crane and et. al., 2019). The main source of secondary data are old records, file,
documents, Journals, books and other literature. They are also available on online website. It is
helps in saving both time and cost as data but data collected might be obsolete or related with
other circumstances and situations. To gather information regarding this research project, the
investigator can use literature review and organising it for collecting data.
For present research use of both primary and secondary source is made (Clark, 2014).
Primary research is used to provide result of questionnaire in form of views and opinions of
respondent. Secondary source is used for conducting literature review.
Research sampling
Sample is basically a part of total population showing the common characteristic of
whole group (Bryant and Javalgi, 2016). It is mainly of two types Probability and non probability
sampling. Probability sampling is of many types, for this research simple random sampling is
used as it is free of baisness and every member of population have equal chance of selection. To
gather information with the help of questionnaire, the investigator choose 30 people from a
number of people so that the person can collect data to meet the objectives of the research project
in effective way.
Research Ethics

It is a world wide set of principles governing the way any research involving interaction
between the researcher and other humans or data relating to humans is designed , managed and
conducted. Research ethics are applied at the time of research to solve all ethical issues and to
ensure that it serves interest of all related party and data collected is relevant. It is closely related
to the ethical principles of social responsibility.
Research Limitations
It refers to those issues and bariers that the investigator can not control. They are
shortcoming, conditions or influences which can not be managed and controlled by the
researcher that place restrictions on research methodologies and conclusions. The main
limitations of research methodology is the time taken for conducting research (Benería, Berik
and Floro, 2015).
Research Reliability and Validity
Research reliability refers to the degree to which research method produces stabile and
agreeable outcome. A particular mensuration is reasoned to be certain if its postulation on the
same aim of measurement number of times produces the same results. Whereas validity is an
indication of how sound research is. It is completely based on the quality of questions which are
provided in questionnaire. The researcher need to be free from all types of baisness to increase
the validity and reliability of research (Baylis, Owens and Smith, 2017).
Research budget
It refers to that amount and fund which is needed and required to run and operate the
business activities and operations. This shows the amount of money spend on research. Before
performing research project, the management of the company estimate the budget or planning the
fund and mony whcuih is required for the project. The estimated budget for this project is £800
(Amavilah, Asongu and Andrés, 2017).
CHAPTER4: DATA ANALYSES
The data analyses is the tool or technique through which the gathered data is assembled
and analysed in detail (Pieterse, 2019). This analyses will help the researcher to frame proper
and authentic results in order to meet business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently.
For this analyses, questionnaire has been developed.