On the Paradigm Guiding Industrial Relations Theory and Research Comment on John Godard and John T. Delaney, “Reflections on the ‘High Performance’ Paradigm's Implications for Industrial Relations as a Field”

Abstract

John Godard and John Delaney (2000) have done our field a service by raising the question of the appropriate for contemporary industrial relations research. Their critique of the expanding body of work they label the high performance paradigm raises important issues about both the positive and normative directions of research in our field-that is, broadly, about both our formal models and methods and the values guiding our work. But they make two mistakes in their analysis that I believe cause them to miss the reasons for the emergence of this body of research. First, they confuse normative and positive issues, and second, they argue that the shift away from a focus on traditional forms of collective bargaining necessarily signals a reduction in the importance researchers attach to institutions that give