Introducing the Agents

In: Organization studies: an international multidisciplinary journal devoted to the study of organizations, organizing, and the organized in and between societies, Volume 28, Issue 2, p. 133-153

Abstract

This article aims to expand our understanding of what it is to be an agent within an organization. To do this, the views of both Archer and Giddens on the constitution of the agent are analysed. These expositions are used to differentially illuminate the specifics of an empirical case, where it is argued that a team of ten agents were crucial in taking forward a merger between two pharmaceutical companies ('A' and 'ω'). A discussion compares the insights into how agents are constituted that arise from the conceptual frames offered by Archer and Giddens. The article concludes that the constitution of the organizational agent encompasses both agential positioning (vis-à-vis organizational resources) and agential powers (where these powers can be appropriated from the organization and incorporated by the agent).