From personnel economics to a political economy of work
David Spencer, Leeds University Business School
Personnel economics has helped to broaden labour economics. But its development has been at the expense of genuine interdisciplinary dialogue and the communication and integration of ideas from heterodox economics. Its rise within business schools has also been implicated in the spread of ‘bad’ management that is detrimental to the well-being of workers. The presentation considers the limits of personnel economics and the prospects of developing an alternative approach to the study of HRM that is rooted in the broader political economy tradition.
