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

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12274
• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Author: John W. Budd
• Date: 01 January 2020

PROVOCATION PAPER

The psychologisation of employment relations,

alternative models of the employment

relationship, and the OB turn

John W. Budd

Center for Human Resources and Labor

Studies, Carlson School of Management,

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,

Minnesota

Correspondence

John W. Budd, Center for Human Resources

and Labor Studies, Carlson School of

Management, University of Minnesota,

Minneapolis, MN 55455.

Email: jbudd@umn.edu

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 employ-

ment 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 dis-

cussion 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.

KEYWORDS

frame of reference, HRM, industrial relations, organisational

behaviour, unitarism

In an intentionally provocative article, John Godard (2014) argued that the field of human resource management

(HRM) has become increasingly dominated by psychological theorising and scholarship. Furthermore, this “psycho-

logization of HRM”contributes to a higher level “psychologization of employment relations”as the former coincides

with a decline in the field of industrial relations. As a traditional industrial relations scholar who champions a pluralist

model of the employment relationship (Budd, 2004) and the importance of labour relations within HRM instruction

and practice (Budd, 2018), I share some of Godard's concerns with the psychologisation of employment relations as I

will expand upon in this commentary.

Troth and Guest (this issue) counter Godard (2014) by documenting the important contributions of

psychological-based research to the understanding and practice of HRM. Kaufman (this issue) provides a detailed cri-

tique of Troth and Guest, but we all readily agree that psychological approaches have long made important

Received: 4 January 2019 Revised: 11 June 2019 Accepted: 2 December 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12274

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 73

Hum Resour Manag J. 2020;30:73–83.