Biological implicit measures in HRM and OB: A question of how not if

Abstract

Scholars in the disciplines of human resource management (HRM) and organizational behavior (OB) have primarily focused on explicit processes and measures in their research, but much of human feeling and behavior is triggered through implicit processing outside of conscious awareness. In this article, we discuss how explicit and implicit processes interact to shape work emotions, attitudes, and behaviors, and we suggest that scholars should incorporate biological measures for assessing implicit as well as explicit processes into their research designs. We provide guidance for such endeavors by describing how several biological implicit measures can be used in HRM and OB research. These measures include cortisol measurement, skin conductance, event related potential (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).