People, Culture, and Leadership: A Report on JB Hi-Fi's Strategies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of JB Hi-Fi's strategies in the areas of leadership, organizational culture, and employee engagement. It examines how JB Hi-Fi attempts to improve its performance through initiatives such as training and coaching, removing internal roadblocks, aligning perfo...Read More

People, culture and contemporary leadership
Name
(Affiliation institution)

Introduction
JB HI-FI is a company based in Australia that was founded by Mr. John Barbuto in 1974
(JB HI-Fi, 2020 p.1). The company was founded under a philosophy of delivering a specialist
range of Hi-Fi and recorded music at lower prices in Australia. Currently, JB Hi-Fi is the largest
home entertainment retailer in Australia with the company selling a variety of products such as
air-conditioning, cooking appliances, white goods, and consumer electronics. Furthermore, JB
stores also offer world-leading brands such as Portable Audio and stacks, Home theatre, Car
Sound, Speakers, Hi-Fi, Cameras, TVs, Tablets, and Computers. In addition, the company also
offers a wide range of games, DVD music, recorded music, DVD movies and TV shows at a
slightly low price as compared to the competitors in the market (JB HI-Fi, 2020 p.1). The paper
determines how JB HI-FI Company is trying to improve performance, culture, and engagement.
Performance Related Initiatives
JB Hi-Fi Company is trying to improve its performance by adopting various productivity
practices. The practices include training and coaching of staff, removing internal roadblocks
aligning the performance metrics, work safety as well as leveraging high-impact leadership
practices.
Leveraging high impact leadership practices is an effective strategy that JB Hi-Fi
Company is trying to exercise to boost its performance. The company has engaged in the
recruitment and selection process of departmental managers and supervisors with onset skills and
experience in running the organizational operations. The leaders can communicate clearly to
their employees on core business areas like organizational and departmental performance,
solutions, obstacles, progress, targets, and the current organizational initiatives. A research
conducted by Harris, Day, Hopkins, Hadfield, Hargreaves and Chapman, (2013 p.13) shows that
one way of improving performance is through effective leadership. Therefore, by leveraging

leadership practices, Hi-fi Company has been able to develop a self-motivated workforce with
employees who are working towards their set targets and organizational objectives hence
improving the performance.
Through identification and removal of internal barriers, JB HI-FI is has been able to
eliminate the conflicts, frustration and any other organizational issue that may limit the potential
of employees to perform. The company regularly reviews their work procedures to create a firm
relationship between functional areas and further develop procedures and work policies which
that enable employees to do things quickly and accurately. In addition, the company has also set
metrics in place which enable employees to make the right prioritization and guiding decision
making. For example, the company is trying to use Non-finical metrics that are closely linked to
the company’s competitive differentiation hence keeping all employees aligned to the similar
strategic direction that JB-HI has put in place. In addition, the departmental managers also
explain to employees why the metrics are tailored to each department hence enabling employees
to make a difference in the JB Hi-fi performance.
Training and development are one of the fluent strategies that JB-HI uses to enhance
performance. JB HI-FI Company has a workforce that is approaching retirement age and
therefore the low productivity is sometimes experienced. With employees approaching
retirement age, JB HI-Fi has identified this training need to increase employee engagement levels
and reduce the rate of turnover. The company has come up with an initiative called “employee
action plan” which documents the employees plans for training and enhancing their
competencies. The success of the initiative is achieved by employees adapting to training
effectively and their performance improved. The training has further enabled JB Hi-fi Company

to have the employees be well prepared to perform the essential tasks and work under a changing
environment which has assisted to boost the organizational performance.
Culture Related Initiatives
JB HI-FI is one of the companies in Australia that has highly invested in various
initiatives to preserve its long term culture. Guiso, Sapienza & Zingales (2015) defined culture as
“as unwritten and unspoken norms in an organization that drives behaviors of how employees are
willing to work collaboratively and get a thing done at the right time in the right manner. The
core values of an organization form part of unspoken and unwritten norms and further research
by Ortega‐Parra and Sastre‐Castillo (2013 p.13) also indicates that if a discrepancy between
enacted values and stated values arises, the company experienced an optimum challenge.
JB HI-FI tries to improve its performance culture by integrating the recruitment and
selection of employees, encouraging top-down approach, regular goal setting and practicing
ethical behaviors, regular goals setting and engaging in corporate social responsibility. Ever
since 2008, JB Hi-fi Company has allowed its workforce to contribute to not-for-profit
organizations and other charity partners through monthly payroll deduction. The company named
this initiative “matching dollar for dollar” (JB HI-Fi, 2020 p.26). Over 6000 employees of JB
Hi-fi participate in the donation initiative which forms over 76% of the entire workforce. The
initiatives were formed with the ultimate aim of maintaining the culture of giving back to the
community which the company has been practicing since its foundation.
The company also offers improves its culture of performance by reviewing goals as
encouraging a top-down approach. With a top-down approach, the chain of command flows from
top to bottom and employees are mandated to adhere to all the directives. The approach has seen
all employees work under strict regulations and policies with leaders being result-oriented rather
than people-oriented. With strict policies and procedures, employees’ behaviors and core values

have been shaped to match organizational core values. In addition, an employee has been forced
to perform as individuals are accountable for their performances in the company.
From the analysis, it is clear that the hierarchy culture is the most prevalent in the JB Hi-
Fi organization. According to Ahmadi, Ali, Salamzadeh, Daraei and Akbari (2012 p.56),
hierarchy culture where procedures and processes are in hierarchical culture with leaders being
strict on the performance as well as achievement of organizational targets and objectives.
Engagement Related Initiatives)
JB Hi-fi has built a performing workforce through its involvement in employee
engagement practices. Motivation of staff has facilitated to high rates of engagement and
commitment in the organization. To increase engagement, JB Hi-fi has built a strong relationship
ad significantly created trust with the workforce as well as awarding employees with attractive
compensation and rewards benefits that can motivate them to be more committed.
Trust has been a key in JB Hi-Fi Company when it comes to increasing employee
engagement levels. With trust, employees believe their managers and strategic management
cares about them hence facilitating a high degree of commitment to organizational success.
Research by Tariq, Aslam, Habib, Siddique and Khan (2012 p.559). indicated that most of the
employees work for many years in their organizations for long because of the trust as compared
to compensation packages. To enhance the trust, JB Hi-Fi has implemented a “whistle blower
initiatiative” which enables the employees to report misconducts which might interfere with their
trust levels. The initiative has been successful as employees have anonymously reported various
unethical behaviours. Therefore, with trust, JB Hi-Fi’s employees are assured that the company
is supporting their career development and helping them grow leading to a high level of
engagement that is being experienced by the company.

Compensating and rewarding employees effectively is one of the strategies that JB Hi-fi
is trying to do to boost employee engagement. JB Hi-fi Company has set effective benefits for its
employees which motivates employees to be more engaged and committed to the organization.
For example, the company offers non-financial benefits such as comprehensive insurance
(covering inpatient, outpatient, dental, optical and disability), recognition programs and internal
promotion of employees. The company is also rewarding finical benefits like bonuses, overtimes,
and allowances. Research conducted by Darolia, Kumari and Darolia (2010 p.69). shows that
when employees are rewarded effectively with both financial and non-financial rewards their
degree of being committed and engaged increases significantly. Therefore, compensation and
rewards have a significant contribution to employee engagement. Furthermore, the company has
also gone ahead to incorporate wellbeing as a part of the compensation and reward plan. The
company has put in place paid gym facilities as well as an EAP initiative that often monitors the
health and safety of its employees. With all the engagement measures, the likelihood of success
is high.
Conclusion
JB Hi-Fi is the largest home entertainment offering a variety of products. The company
has been highly successful in the market as a result of effective strategies in the context of
employees’ engagement, improving its performance as well as maintaining its culture. The
company is trying to improve performance through training and coaching of employees in areas
where there is a skills gap, aligning metrics, ensuring there is work safety, and leveraging its
leadership. JB Hi-Fi is also trying to improve and maintain its culture in the market by recruiting
employees who match the organizational values and promoting ethics and corporate social
responsibility. The culture which is more prevalent in the company is hierarchical which entails

strict procedures and policies that employees must follow. The company is also trying to
improve its degree of employee engagement through the provision of attractive rewards and
compensations, promoting diversity and creating trust with the workforce.
References
Ahmadi, A., Ali, S., Salamzadeh, Y., Daraei, M. and Akbari, J., 2012. Relationship between
organizational culture and strategy implementation: Typologies and dimensions. Global
Business & Management Research, 4.
Darolia, C.R., Kumari, P. and Darolia, S., 2010. Perceived organizational support, work
motivation, and organizational commitment as determinants of job performance. Journal of the
Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 36(1), pp.69-78.
Guiso, L., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2015). The value of corporate culture. Journal of
Financial Economics, 117(1), 60-76.
Harris, A., Day, C., Hopkins, D., Hadfield, M., Hargreaves, A. and Chapman, C., 2013. Effective
leadership for school improvement. Routledge.
JB Hi-Fi Company, (2020).About us. Available at: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/pages/about-
us.Accessed on 18, April, 2020.
Ortega‐Parra, A. and Sastre‐Castillo, M.Á., 2013. Impact of perceived corporate culture on
organizational commitment. Management Decision.
Tariq, A., Aslam, H.D., Habib, M.B., Siddique, A. and Khan, M., 2012. Enhancing employees’
collaboration through trust in organizations :(An emerging challenge in Human Resource
Management). Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), pp.559-565.