Strategic HR Management Analysis: Court Case and McGowan Case Study

This report provides a strategic human resource management analysis of the firm Court Case and McGowan. It utilizes the HR matrix to assess staffing, development, rewards, and performance management within the company. The internal and external environments are examined, with a focus on issues of motivation, fairness, and the impact of pay structures on employee performance. The report critiques the existing performance management system, including feedback mechanisms and development opportunities. It also delves into managerial steps taken regarding pay systems, considering both monetary and non-monetary rewards. The analysis highlights the importance of employee recognition, fair compensation, and transparent communication in fostering a positive and productive work environment, offering recommendations for improvements in areas such as performance appraisals and talent management.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Strategic Human resource management- case study analysis of court, case and McGowan
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Executive Summary
Human resource management is an important parameter of a company and organization. It is this
parameter, from where quality products are produced for the stakeholders. The direction of this
production is from the internal environment to the external environment. However, this
assignment deals with the internal environment of the firm Court Case and McGowan Company.
As a matter of specification, the focus of the assignment is on managing the performance of the
employees in an efficient and effective manner. Strategic analysis of the current performance
management systems of the firm helps the researcher to apply the motivational theories and
models. Along with this, an in-depth insight into the performance management practices adds
value to the theoretical perspectives. Attempts towards modifying the structures and systems of
the pay scale reflect the managerial initiatives towards extracting the best out of the employees.
Rational thinking in this modification reflects the wise as well as the Samaritan side of the
managers in terms of ensuring the wellbeing of the employees.

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Table of contents
Strategic analysis.............................................................................................................................3
HR matrix applied to the organisation.........................................................................................3
Internal and external environment...............................................................................................4
Issues related to the motivation and fairness...............................................................................4
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Body.................................................................................................................................................5
Management of performance.......................................................................................................5
Feedback......................................................................................................................................6
Development................................................................................................................................6
Managerial steps towards the pay systems and structure............................................................7
Critical reviews of the basic pay..................................................................................................7
Critical reflection on the managerial steps towards the pay scale...............................................8
Management of the non-monetary rewards and of indirect and variable pay elements..............9
Non-monetary rewards................................................................................................................9
Managerial steps towards the non-monetary rewards...............................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Strategic analysis
The topic focuses on the strategic human resource management, and to conduct the
strategic analysis, the Human resource matrix is used for making different measurements and
derives the value provided by the functions of human resources at Court, Case & McGowan. The
value obtained from the measurements could help in determining the efficiency of managing the
human resources, and this could ensure the overall success of the organisation. The company
employs over 800 staffs only at the office in Australia, and so proper management of human
resources should be needed (Daley 2012).
HR matrix applied to the organisation
The HR matrix can be used to measure the value obtained from the human resource
management functions, and it includes four major components including the staffing,
development, rewards and management of performance. The staffing approach followed by the
organization helped in planning the processes of recruitment and selection, create the job design
and make sure that the requirements for the job were fulfilled by the candida6e who would be
selected. The development approach was followed by providing training sessions to the workers
of Court, Case & McGowan for strengthening their skills, expertise and knowledge, furthermore
allowed them to gain a positive attitude to perform efficiently within the workplace (Ulrich and
Dulebohn 2015). The rewards could be provided as monetary and non-monetary for encouraging
the staffs to work harder and even develop their inner abilities. This could be beneficial for
enhancing the workforce effectiveness and improve the company’s financial status. The
management of performances is done by gathering the feedbacks of the employees and
understanding their requirements, based on which, changes or improvements could be done.

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Evaluating the business practices is important as well to enhance their performances and ensure
that their performances can meet up to the organisational standards (Jiang et al. 2012).
Internal and external environment
The internal environment of the organisation includes the structure, size, culture and
abilities to sustain in the business environment. The human resources policies and strategies
implemented are considered as major activities of the internal business environment The human
resources policies, strategies are implemented, and a suitable structure and culture are followed
to align these policies to the actual goals and objectives of the organisation strategically. This
could enhance the workforce capabilities and allow for making perfect decisions for contributing
to the organisational efficiency. The external environment is analysed with the use of PEST
analysis that has determined the political, social, labour market and technological advancements
made by the company to improve its customers' services (Wood and Kispál-Vitai 2014). The
labour market needs are fulfilled by providing them with enough wages and implement effective
human resource practices for bringing out the success factors.
Issues related to the motivation and fairness
Additional wages, incentives and promotions are managed to improve the performances
of the organisation. This would even combine the seniority, experiences, skills and competence
level of the individuals and ensure providing the right amounts of wages to the workers of Court,
Case & McGowan. Often it was seen that issues tend to arise when few of the employees were
paid higher while the others were paid less (Jiang et al. 2012). This often leads to some form of
discrimination and de-motivation, which in turn, deteriorates their performances. Providing
rewards only could not create fairness in human resource management, but praising their

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performances would be important for enabling transparency and open communication between
the workers, which should create efficiency within the workforce (Ulrich and Dulebohn 2015).
Introduction
Human resources of a company or organization are the employees, the managers and the
other resources. The ways in which the personnel make use of the organizational resource
determines their approach towards execution of the allocated position. Rational thinking in the
execution of the assigned duties and responsibilities relates with the variable “strategic”, as
mentioned in the title of the assignment. Strategic analysis in the beginning of the assignment
enhances the clarity of the readers regarding the position of the firm, Court Case and McGowan
Company in the current competitive ambience of the market. As a sequential step, insight into
managerial aspects of the performance represents the attempt towards enhancement of the
internal infrastructure.
Body
Management of performance
The management of performance is a very important aspect in the business context. The
organization, Court Case and McGowan Company that has been focused in this organization
deals with the legal things as it is a commercial law firm. The payment structure is based on the
performance of the employees and they have addressed the situation in a way that the employees
try to meet their basic targets in their jobs. The basic salary of the employees in the organization
is determined by the annual review of the employees. The annual pay rise of the employees
depends on the various issues in the organization (Van Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015).

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These issues are known by Goodchap only. The pay rise issue has remained mysterious
one because the determinants in the annual pay rise have not been known yet. The seniority and
competency of the employers are important ones but the pay rise issue is not resolved by any
means. The motivation for the employees could be the annual pay rise but this has been under
serious concern over the times. In spite of terrific performance, the solicitors are given the basic
salary so the performance management is not managed well (Buckingham and Goodall 2015).
Feedback
The working hours of the solicitors have been fixed at 7.5 hours per day and the payment
of the solicitors is about $150 per hour. There has not been any annual appraisal and review in
the organization and this has caused a great amount of dissatisfaction among the solicitors and
other employees (Bernardin and Wiatrowski 2013). The solicitors are always expected to meet
the minimum budget requirement. There are no rewards for the solicitors who exceed their
monthly targets. The feedback from the employees is not good enough to be appreciation for the
employers. The remuneration practices in the organization are very poor. The solicitors expect
extra rewards from the organization as they have put in their best efforts to make profits for the
organization. The organization does its business in the partnership method. There has been an
internal conflict in the organization because of the inequality in their payments (Bernardin and
Wiatrowski 2013).
Development
Some measures can be appropriately taken to stop these evil practices regarding the
unequal pay to the employees and the solicitors. The organization must recognize the
extraordinary skills and talents in the employees. They should launch some talent search program
by which they would be able to recognize the best talents within their organization and the ones

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who contribute to the company in a large way. The existing pay system of the organization
should be revised and the senior associates of the organization should look to reward the best
employees in the organization (Shields et al. 2015). The systematic appraisal review should be
incorporated within the organization so that the top talents in the organization should look to stay
in the organization. Employee retention should be aimed by Court, Case and McGowan. The
payment disparity must be resolved in order to improve the brand image of the organization in a
big way.
Management of base pay system, structure and its relationship to the market
Managerial steps towards the pay systems and structure
Review of the annual payments is one of the typical examples of the management
practices followed by Court Case and McGowan Company. However, the declaration made by
the chief partner reflected the lack of maturity, which attaches an interrogative parameter to the
roles and responsibilities executed by the managers (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). The air in
the room cannot be cut with the knife, declaring this in the conference in front of huge audience
is a kind of self-mocking, which degrades the personality of the manager, adding vulnerability to
the market position of the company. In the review, it was found that the annual payment was the
lowest in the previous five years.
Critical reviews of the basic pay
The business critiques are varied in their opinions about base pay and their structure.
There is an assumption that the payment needs to be made based on the performance exposed by
the employees. This is not contingent, rather the setting is done according to the hourly, weekly
and annual salary, which the employees are entitled to receive (Kramar 2014). The exact value
for this is 10% of the bonus, which the employees of the company are to receive upon the

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exposure of better performance. However, the reactions of the employees on the low annual
review contradict the aspect of incentives and bonus. Conflicts between the employees
aggravated the complexities of the company in terms of paying the minimum wages to the
employees in a legal manner.
The debates regarding the basic pay concerned three aspects- the base pay, variable pay
and indirect pay. The basic pay is promised upon the joining time, which is modified according
to the levels and grades of performance exposed by the employees (Marler and Fisher 2013).
Variation is added in the basic pay, when the performance becomes matured and polished.
Attachment of rationality in this variation entitles the employees to incentives, motivating them
to maintain consistency in the exposure of such performance. This consistency creates a positive
image about the employees in the minds of the managers, which generates an inner urge to
introduce beneficial schemes and offers for insuring their life.
Critical reflection on the managerial steps towards the pay scale
These facilities reflect the oriental approach of the management of court case and
McGowan companies in terms of creating prospective workplace environment for the employees
(Purce 2014). Taking into consideration various factors for determining the salary of the
employees seemed to be in perfect alignment with the good practices of human resource
management. Keeping the employees updated about the latest activities is a typical evidence of
this fact. Giving the basic salary, irrespective of their performance is valuing and respecting their
efforts towards making the company attain the identified and specified goals.
Consistent high performance of the employees is rewarded. In case of absence of such
facilities, the efforts, time and energy given by the employees is considered as “billable hours”,

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which can be considered as an attempt to make up for lacks and fissures. This attempt is the
attempt to stabilize the financial aspect within the competitive ambience of the market (Mitchell,
Obeidat and Bray 2013). For getting the gross basic pay, the solicitors are entrusted with the
responsibility to carry out the allocated responsibilities according to the legal specifications. The
ranges of this legality are $150 per hour with an average of 7.5 hours. The value is $500 for a
solicitor, who has attained seniority in the experience.
All these specifications reflect the oriental approach of the manager of the firm in terms
of enhancing the productivity by extracting the best out of the employees. Delving deep into the
issue, the managers have a conscious approach towards eliminating the solicitors, who fail to
give the required performance are terminated without any further hustle and bustle (Sparrow,
Brewster and Chung 2016). Direct termination is an attempt to shedding off the negativity to
make the workplace a creative one. On the contrary, not rewarding the solicitors, overshooting
the billable hours of the budget can be flexible enough for destroying the stability in the
relationship between the manager and the employee. This destruction, in turn, destroys the
stability of the internal infrastructure, which attaches an interrogative parameter to the aspect of
foreign market penetration for the firm.
Management of the non-monetary rewards and of indirect and variable pay elements
Non-monetary rewards
Non-monetary rewards include leaves, personal recognition, praises, gift vouchers and
coupons for lunch and dinners in restaurants and resorts. The current pay structure has many
drawbacks, which has compelled the company to encounter tough competition from the
contemporary brands (Reiche, Mendenhall and Stahl 2016). In view of this, the thoughts of new

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reward approach are one of an effective human resource management practices. Grants and
permission for adopting new and modern performance management systems would be assistance
for the firm personnel in terms of managing the employee performance and appraising them in
appropriate, authentic and legal manner. In this situation, changing the structure of the basic pay
would alter the traditionalism of the firm. This would make the foundation of the firm
vulnerable. Instead, attempting to change the perspectives of the personnel would prove
beneficial in terms of seeking innovative means for valuing the efforts put in by the employees
(Martín, Miguel and Sánchez 2013).
Managerial steps towards the non-monetary rewards
Adjusting the pay levels of each grade would need enough financial flexibility from the
managers as well as the other staffs. As a matter of specification, the managers here need to
expose broad-mindedness in terms of aligning with the level or the position offered. Focusing on
the construction of plans according to the target would align with the good management practice.
Here, incentives for better performance would be the attempt of the managers in terms of luring
the employees towards the workplace (Alfes et al. 2013). Oriental approach in this direction is of
utmost importance here, identification of the appropriate performance measures would enable the
managers of the firm to get the required business.
Evaluation would be one of effective management practices, which would help the
managers to assess the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the plans in terms of the
identified benchmark level of performance. Using templates and checklists for this purpose
would enhance the clarity of the personnel regarding the expenses for the planned performance
management systems. Therefore, after the planning of the pay scales and structures, evaluation
would prove fruitful in terms of their impact on the employees (Albrecht et al. 2015). Within the