As part of this issue of Human Resource Management Journal , we present a collection of four articles that represent a conversation around the “psychologisation” of the human resource management (HRM) and employment relations (ER) fields of study. The first article is a provocation arguing “The case for psychology in human resource management research” co‐authored by Ashlea Troth and David Guest. This is followed by the first of two commentaries in response to this provocation, “The psychologisation of employment relations, alternative models of the employment relationship, and the OB turn” authored by John Budd. The second is authored by Bruce Kaufman and pronounces “The real problem: The deadly combination of psychologising, scientism, and normative promotionalism take strategic HRM down a thirty‐year dead end.” The final article in this conversation is a short response by John Godard, “Psychologisation revisited,” responding to Troth and Guest as well as building from his original article “The psychologisation of employment relations?” published in HRMJ in 2014 (volume 24, issue 1).