23369: Agency in Organization Theory: Exploring the Human, More-than-Human, and Other-than-Human

Although ubiquitous in organization research and an undercurrent in organization theory, agency remains largely under-theorized and poorly understood. As societies and organizations face complex changes and challenges – e.g., rise of AI, ongoing climate crisis, persistent structural inequity, etc – our understanding of agency remains limited. Expanding our perspectives and conceptualization of agency can help organization scholars develop new perspectives and conceptual insights about different sources, forms and manifestations of agency, including how actors can be creative, change, and challenge in the process of being or becoming an agent. In this PDW, using roundtable discussions, we are looking to stimulate conversations that will encourage participants to explore multiple perspectives on agency and consider its implications for different theories of organization. We want to stimulate a broad range of ideas, and are interested in perspectives that help us advance the idea of agency in organization theory