The psychologisation of employment relations, alternative models of the employment relationship, and the OB turn

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Abstract

As part of this journal's provocation series, John Godard criticised the psychologisation of human resource management and expressed concern with the psychologisation of employment relations. This article uses four explicit frames of reference on the employment relationship to further explicate Godard's concern with the distancing of the field from questions about the structural nature of the employment relationship. This discussion is then extended to consider the magnifying implications of the turn within the field toward organisational behaviour research. Ultimately, the complexity of work and employment means that the field needs to be vigilant in embracing not only multidisciplinary but also multiperspective approaches rather than letting the field become excessively unitary.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)73-83
Number of pages11
JournalHuman Resource Management Journal
Volume30
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Keywords

  • HRM
  • frame of reference
  • industrial relations
  • organisational behaviour
  • unitarism

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