Management Theories And Practices For Sustainability In JB Hi-Fi

Description of the organisation

Discuss about the Management and Theories and Practices.

The management theories and practices are concerned with the collection of various ideas and opinions to set up rules and regulations for managing the business in an effective manner. The management theories and practices can also help the managers and supervisors to use their knowledge to accomplish the goals and objectives as well as implement effective ways or approaches to achieve the goals and objectives. The theories and practices of management thus can be beneficial for managing the human resources of the organization JB Hi Fi and keep the staffs motivated by allowing them to perform to their potential and meet the quality standards of the products and services delivered by the organization in Australia (Jbhifi.com, 2017). Within a professional field, it is always essential for the managers and supervisors of an established business organisation to provide the most effective framework for managing the strategies properly within JB Hi Fi (Bloom et al., 2012). It will help to guide the workforce in the right direction for accomplishing the organisational goals and obtain the best production level along with better company sales and revenue generation too.

The essay will discuss few of the strategic management practices used by the organisation and various theoretical concepts to sustainability within JB Hi Fi in Australia. The theoretical concepts and practices that can influence the managerial practices within JB Hi Fi will also be illustrated along with the ways of achieving a sustainable business within the competitive business environment. Lastly, few recommendations will be provided too for ensuring that the sustainability practices within the organisation can bring out positive outcomes that can both benefit the company and effectively enhance the performances of employees too (Bratton & Gold, 2012).

JB Hi-Fi is a retail organisation that offers consumer goods and services such as electronic items and is presently one of the most successful and growing business organisations in Australia. It is a large company within the retail industry, and it found in nearly 200 locations all over the world. Few of the major products offered by the company are DVDs, Blu ray discs, home appliances, hardware items, mobile phones, laptops, computer accessories, electronic products and video games and consoles too (Brigham & Ehrhardt, 2013). The company has managed to create a sustainable place in the market, and this has helped the organisation to generate revenue of A$4 billion and profit of A$152 million. It has an operating income of A$221 million, which makes it one of most successful retail companies in Australia (Jbhifi.com, 2017). Since its introduction, the company has managed to grow consistently and has even acquired 70 percent of the chains of Clive Anthony in Queensland. Hills and Stewart chains are also acquired by the company to enhance its sales by keeping not only limited to Australia, rather manage its distribution and selling of products and services in New Zealand for a whopping amount of NZ$17.5 million (Brundiers & Wiek, 2013).

Theoretical concepts of sustainability

Due to the good amounts of the rate of return on investments made, JB Hi Fi has also opened a new branch in Sydney in the area of Castle Hill to expand its customer base and increase the number of customers too. The organisation has not only created a strong market presence but also has been specialised in delivering electronic consumer goods that have fulfilled the quality standards as well as fulfilled the demands and preferences of the customers largely (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). In the previous year, i.e., 2016, JB Hi-Fi also created a major deal by acquiring warehouses of The Good Guys in Australia and became one of the largest and most popular electronics retailers in Australia (Jbhifi.com, 2017).

JB Hi-Fi has managed to promote effective environmental sustainability practices and so presently, the company do not have any obligatory requirements that are needed by the company to comply with. The company not only developed several voluntary initiatives but also had strived towards business operations by creating very less impact on the environment (Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis, 2015). This organization has been considered as an example of strategic management practices because of its effective Code of conduct that has been provided to all the employees regarding their responsibilities. This is important to protect the environment from harm as well manage disposal of wastes, reduce chemicals and furthermore utilize the resources in an effective way too by preventing any wastage (Cornelissen et al., 2015).

JB Hi-Fi is one of the largest retail chains which has been working in partnership with the NSW Government for delivering smart choices retail programs and allow the customers make good choices related to the costs of running and management of electronic goods and services before purchasing by the customers. This is an easy and convenient way to allow the customers make choices before purchase as well as make them understand about how the products that they will buy can fulfill their needs and requirements (Daft, 2012). The retail partners of the company have helped the families of many customer to make cost effective decisions, which can allow them to make more savings based on their energy bills and even make the customers know about the advantages that can be incurred after buying the energy efficient home appliances, electronic goods and other products delivered by JB Hi-Fi in Australia. JB Hi-Fi has managed to offer good quality products that have lower running costs and thus have been preferred by many customers of Australia (Epstein & Buhovac, 2014).

Corporate social responsibility

The management theories and practices of JB Hi-Fi are quite effective for creating a good workforce consisting of employees who are skilful and knowledgeable enough to handle critical situations and establish themselves as major organisational assets to achieve the business goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness (Hayes, 2014). The retail company has set up various platforms inclined with the sustainability approaches to providing integrated products and services to the other businesses, education sectors as well as Government with the use of its JB Hi-Fi solutions arm. With the help of organic growth and acquisitions of effective strategies, the company has managed to provide $500 million per year in sales, and this has even increased the profit level largely. The company managed to enter FY16 with an aggressive and effective plan of recruitment to expand the customer base by making a wide range of products and services available along with generation of more customers (Hurteau et al., 2014).  The trading activities of JB Hi-Fi are quite a strong and effective because the company has cycled through the soft trading period to gain benefits like growth in sales along with tax incentives too. In the financial year, five new stores were opened as well, which further expanded the number of stores of JB Hi-Fi to nearly 200 all across New Zealand and Australia (Järveläinen, 2013).

The theoretical sustainability concepts consider the corporate social responsibility of the business organisation, which has allowed to donate to many charity partners by the management of payroll deductions. JB Hi-Fi has managed its sustainability approaches by understanding its responsibilities or duties towards the community and how it can be possible with the development of an enhanced workforce. JB Hi-Fi has matched up the contributions of staffs to create a positive impact on both the community and charities with ease and effectiveness (Kianto, Andreeva & Pavlov, 2013). The company has been a proud member of the Australian Charities Fund to support the goals of Mdonors till the year 2020 and ensure that the charities are provided with proper support and help to benefit the community (Jbhifi.com, 2017). Based on the codes of conduct, the company has managed the business operations without creating any negative impact on the environment. The business operations create huge amounts of wastes, chemicals and natural resources are often wasted. Thu, to maintain sustainability properly, JB Hi-Fi has protected the environment by managing waste disposal properly along with storage and utilisation of natural resources in an effective manner too (Kianto et al., 2014).

Trading activities and growth of JB Hi-Fi

The Four-capital model or theory is one of the major theoretical concepts to sustainability that not only maintain sustainability within the society but also balances the capital so that it is not wasted. This theory consists of four capitals, and all of these must be balanced together to maintain a sustainable society with ease and efficiency.  The four capital model includes human capital, financial capital, natural capital and manufactured capital. By maintaining human capital such as the labour and skills of workers, their skills, management of social networks, political systems, influence and power along with trust and reputation, the social responsibility of the organisation could be met (Lang et al., 2012). The financial capital including the cash, debt, monetary instruments, investments made can help to maintain the financial sustainability whereas the natural capital includes the resources, living systems and ecosystem services that are responsible for maintaining environmental sustainability. The manufactured capital include the money available for maintaining good infrastructure, implement new machinery and equipment and make the factories function properly (Lukas, Whitwell & Heide, 2013).

The Natural Capitalism theory also helped in maintaining sustainability with the inclusion of land, labor and manufactured capital. It ignored the natural capital for a long period and did not even consider the sustainability within the society, because of which, the utilisation of resources was done without any appropriate management techniques. The natural capitalism theory used various tools including the Radical resource productivity, Biomimicry, Services and flowed economy and investments in natural capital (Markard, Raven & Truffer, 2012). This helped in maintaining the environmental sustainability but also helped to shape the future approaches that could benefit the community and even manage proper sustainable practices by JB Hi-Fi all throughout in an easy way. The cartridges are also collected which are no longer used and can be recycled for usage. The managers have supervised the workers properly and made sure that they follow the laws, rules and regulations properly to maintain peace and harmony within the organisational premises too (Neubauer & Lank, 2016).

The theoretical concept of equity represents the social aspects of the business organisation JB Hi-Fi in Australia. The social aspects are important for benefiting the society as well as create a sustainable environment where the organisation can easily survive in the competitive business environment with ease and effectiveness. It can not only create environmental justice but also will address the various aspects of the environment, social and economic justice along with the social equity, equal rights for development, maintenance of freedom, democracy, empowerment, the participation of individuals and allowing freedom (Ramstad, 2014). In case of any deterioration within the business environment, the questions are linked to the social justice, equity, rights of life for maintained a good quality of life and furthermore ensure welfare and economic scopes related to the supporting of ecosystems. The theoretical concepts of sustainability have helped JB Hi-Fi to implement strategies for the development and improve the quality of lives of human beings, furthermore reducing the negative impacts largely. The equity theory also helps in creating a goal or objective for establishing new joint International initiatives to expand business outside Australia and even develop an equitable global partnership for sustaining in the business environment with ease and effectiveness (Waldman & Jensen, 2016). The concept of intergenerational equity enables the company to allocate the resources in an effective way for the present and future. This is done by fulfilling the needs and preferences of the present generation without compromising on the abilities and skills of future generations for meeting their needs. The intergenerational equity concept focuses less on the sustainable development rather has managed to create an equitable distribution of power for contributing largely to the improvement of quality of the environment where the organisation operates. The power function combines the income equality index, variables of literacy, civil rights, political rights and other geographical factors that can make JB Hi-Fi sustain within the business environment with convenience and ease (Walker & Jones, 2012). By managing equality of power within the organisation premises, there would be enhanced performance by the workforce along with the improvement of the environment too, which could further assist in distributing the net benefits and costs effectively (Jbhifi.com, 2017).

These theoretical concepts have influenced the decisions made by managers through a better understanding of the environmentally sustainable practices and ensure that the company creates very less impact on the environment, though gaining good amounts of profit and competitive advantage in business. The Code of conduct was issued by the manager to all the employees which stated that they all are responsible for protecting the environment as well as manage disposal of wastes, recycle those, store and utilise the natural resources in a proper manner too (Yen & Yen, 2012). The theoretical concepts of sustainability also helped in making JB Hi-Fi respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project or CDP to gain relevant information and report the actions taken by the company to benefit the shareholders and other businesses in Australia. The manager also decided to reduce the carbon emissions by reporting and keeping the emissions of greenhouse gases and consumption of energy monitored for reducing the negative impact on the environment as well (Bloom et al., 2012).

The National Packaging Covenant is a voluntary program that involves both Government and retail industry to make sure that the process of packaging cerates lesser environmental impact and it is measured prior to the effects that it can bring at the initial stages of the packaging process. JB Hi-Fi has followed the voluntary program principles properly to manage the human resources properly and ensure that the supply chain conforms to the requirements of the National Packaging Covenant in an effective manner. With the consultation of the higher authorities and discussing the Theoretical concepts, the managers have made decisions to create an environment-friendly office which can not only reduce the cost of business operations but will also reduce the cost of products largely that can influence the buying behaviours of consumers (Bratton & Gold, 2012). The strategies implemented by the managers have helped in recycling the facilities for paper, cans and furthermore create awareness among the workers by ensuring compliance with the safety and quality standards. The wastes are disposed properly, and managers have come up with new ways to manage mobile muster by enabling the customers to return the mobile phones that can be recycled and used afterwards. The theoretical concepts have also influenced the managerial practices by setting minimum energy performance standards to ensure that the televisions and other electronic goods are provided with energy efficient labels (Brigham & Ehrhardt, 2013).

The main concept of sustainability within JB Hi-Fi is to ensure that the present decisions made do not deteriorate the various aspects of improving the living standards. The economic system of the organisation must be managed well by the manager and make sure that the workers are paid with the right amounts of wages so that they can remain motivated and perform to their potential with ease and effectiveness (Christen & Schmidt, 2012). The manager needs to supervise the workforce as well as manage the economic systems by living off the dividend of the resources, maintain and improve the asset base so that the future generation can lead a healthy life. Enough employment opportunities are provided to the individuals for getting employment within the organisation (Brundiers & Wiek, 2013). This is a corporate social responsibility that can not only maintain a good status of the organisation but also will enable the organisation to create a sustainable place in the market. From all these important aspects, it could be understood that the theoretical concepts had created a major impact on the decisions made by the managers and supervisors that could help in the successful running of the business (Jbhifi.com, 2017).

Few recommendations have been provided based on the context of the essay topic to ensure the improvement of sustainable practices within JB Hi-Fi in Australia.

• It is necessary to make the employees and staffs of the organisation aware of the environmental statements for ensuring that less impact is created on the environment and local community and the wastes are disposed properly along with the use and storage of harmful chemicals.
• It is recommended for the organisation JB Hi-Fi provide relevant data and information to the shareholders on a timely basis for satisfying the obligations and rules of the continuous disclosure.
• The development of risk management and internal control systems is recommended for management of the business risks related to the consolidated entity and make sure that the company functions efficiently.
• Recommendations of providing good amounts of wages are made for setting the appropriate salary according to the Remuneration report.
• It is the responsibility of the Board to approve the Continuous disclosure policy for enabling various methods and techniques to represent the price sensitive information related to the products and services offered and manage proper communication too.
• The Carbon Disclosure project is needed to be responded to at regular intervals for managing the environmental actions to the external users including investors or shareholders and other businesses.
• It is also recommended for JB Hi-Fi to adopt the initiative of mobile muster for recycling the mobile phones and embrace environmentally friendly packaging of products and services delivered by the company.
• All these recommendations show that the company can achieve sustainability and ensure proper functioning with the business environment.

Conclusion

The essay discussed the various aspects of management theory and practices considering the business organisation JB Hi-Fi in Australia. The organisation has been chosen here as an example of strategic management practices and the various theoretical concepts to sustainability had also been illustrated in this essay. The impact of these theoretical concepts on the decisions made by managers had been demonstrated here as well to show the sustainability approaches undertaken by the organisation's leader. Lastly, few recommendations were provided too for managing improvements of the sustainability practices and improve the efficiency of strategic management within JB Hi-Fi in Australia, thereby derive a good conclusion at the end of the essay.

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