In Search of the Subject: Researching Employee Reactions to Human Resource Management

Abstract

F ar too little is known about how employees, as the subject of Human ResourceManagement (HRM), react to its practice. Both the performance-focused and critical streams of writing on HRM perceive the employee in instrumental terms, while neither stream provides a satisfactory means of accommodating competing conceptions of HRM itself. An emerging stream of employee-focused literature makes a credible attempt to assess employee reactions but it too is affected by conceptual and methodological limitations. With a view to addressing these shortcomings, this article employs a discursive framework of analysis which distinguishes between concepts (HRM ideas), objects (idealised human resources) and subjects (thinking and acting employees on whom HRM is practised). It argues that a meaningful evaluation of the discursive concept of HRM only becomes possible by analysing the primary discursive object of HRM (the employee) as a discursive subject. Drawing on the most promising insights offered in the employee-focused literature, including the notions of the psychological contract and organisational justice, the article proposes a series of research questions designed to assist researchers to be more methodical and reflexive in their efforts to recentre the employee as the primary subject of HRM.

A comparative study of the effects of ‘best practice’ HRM on worker outcomes in Malaysia and England local government

“…So far however there is a dearth of research evidence based on employee responses to HR practice, with Macky and Boxall (2007, p. 539) stating that this is a 'neglected' area of research (see also Grant and Shields 2002;Guest 1999Guest , 2002Ramsay, Scholarios and Harley 2000). Further, to our understanding, few commentators have attempted to test the universal model of HRM across national contexts (Budhwar and Debrah 2001;Faulkner, Pitkethly and Child 2002).…”

Developing a critical discourse: Michel Foucault and the cult of solidarity

“…199 -200). Barratt suggests that the interrogation of enterprise culture, its effects on employees and its manifestation in organisations, is still insufficiently problematised, although these issues are steadily being addressed in the critical discourse, organisational discourse, and human resource management literature (Fairclough, 1995;Grant, Hardy, Oswick, & Putnam, 2004;Grant & Shields, 2002;Keat & Abercrombie, 1991;Knights, 2002;Wasson, 2004).…”

Beyond ISTJ: A discourse-analytic study of the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as an organisational change device in an Australian industrial firm

“…The relative lack of scholarly attention to how the MBTI is used and interpreted in practice is not surprising, given that employee reactions to HR activities in general have traditionally been under-researched (Guest 1999;Grant and Shields 2002). This article helps to address this imbalance through a case study analysis of how the MBTI was introduced, interpreted, and used in an Australian heavy manufacturing company that I will call Steelco.…”

“…To make the journey easier to follow, and to facilitate analysis, I employ a discourse-analytic framework developed by Grant and Shields (2002). In an article calling for greater attention to employee reactions to HR practices, Grant and Shields distinguished between discursive concepts, objects and subjects.…”

“…Academic writing on HR tends to fall either within a managerialist stream that assumes that it promotes well-being and productivity, or a critical stream that sees it as an insidious form of control (Guest 1999, Grant and Shields 2002, Maravelias 2003. This dichotomy is reflected in the contrast between literature that advocates the MBTI as valuable to organisations and individuals (e.g.…”