Agency is the capacity to act. More specifically, it’s the capacity to act intentionally and deliberately under conditions of uncertainty and constraint. To notice a collaboration and conflict handling moment as it’s happening, and to choose your response rather than simply react to it.
Uncertainty and constraint come in many flavors – organizational, cultural, personal, social, environmental, technical, and more. And they show up in many ways everyday. In changing conditions and requirements, authority granted or withheld, boundaries on roles, limited resources, unspoken norms, trust or distrust, burnout. All these and more open and close what a person can actually do at any given moment.
Agency is an ancient concept about which every major tradition has asked hard questions – what does it means to be human, what is one’s relationship to the divine and to one another, questions of free will and moral responsibility, autonomy, responsibility, accounability. Organizational and leadership theories wrestle with similar questions of authority, autonomy, delegation, command and control, engagement.
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