The Emergence of Transformative Agency in Professional Work

Tuominen, Tiina; Lehtonen, Miikka J.

doi:10.1177/0170840617717093

Cited by 26 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(130 reference statements)

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“…Agency in organizations and working life is characteristically understood as a transformative power, as something needed to generate (positive) development. Tuominen and Lehtonen (2018) state that in organization studies the concept of agency is used to explain organizational members´ ability to purposively pursue continuity or transformation in their social contexts. They use the notion of transformative agency in order to refer to the individual´s ability to purposefully transform the structures in which they are embedded.…”

Section: Variations Of Agency In Change Situationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of agencies during working life changes

Järvensivu

2020

RELA

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The aim of this study is to shed light on the varieties of workers´ agencies in working life change situations, which is an under-researched topic in the literature of workplace learning and in working life studies. The research questions are what kinds of agencies there are to be found when workers encounter changes and how the different kinds of agencies are connected together. The understanding of agency is grounded on the subject-centered socio-cultural approach, whereas the methodological approach is based on applying life-course perspective on research material consisting of 48 working life narratives written by Finnish adults. The narratives are analyzed by abductive content analysis. The results reveal the dynamical and periodical processes between the different kinds of agencies during one´s working life narrative. The different forms of agency overlap and rotate. Suffering can be seen as a dynamic concept mediating transformative agencies, small agency and resistance.

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Section: Variations Of Agency In Change Situationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of agencies during working life changes

Järvensivu

2020

RELA

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“…Organizational scholars have used the broad categories developed by Archer (1995) to bring to light the relevance of structural predispositions and vested interest assumed by people filling positions (Delbridge & Edwards, 2013;Herepath, 2014;Reed, 2001;Tuominen & Lehtonen, 2017). The critical realist tradition frames organizing levels (e.g.…”

Section: The Perspective Of Analytical Dualism and The Morphogenetic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This latticework of layered relations of positioned-practices often places inconsistent and incoherent demands on individuals filling organizational positions (Reed, 2001). Individuals can regroup as agents sharing some vested interest for specific matters by virtue of their roles as actors, but they can be in different positions in other respects as they face diverse demands (Tuominen & Lehtonen, 2017).…”

Section: The Perspective Of Analytical Dualism and The Morphogenetic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adversarial or collaborative interaction between people assuming project managerial roles are rooted in the objective demands of their dual position; insofar organizational and contractual relations are simultaneously enacted by these managers operating PPPs (Benitez-Avila et al, 2019;Reed, 2001;Tuominen & Lehtonen, 2017). This means that objective demands and predispositions do not operate as mechanical pressures but are manifested in associative and dissociative relations that are enacted and recreated by human action (Donati & Archer, 2015).…”

Section: Dual Position Of Project Managersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, ongoing activity and social interaction are predisposed by the structures shaped in the past, and agency can only modify structural properties for future interaction. This leads to what is known as the morphogenetic cycle (Archer, 1995) used in organizational studies for guiding empirical research in organizational change (Herepath, 2014;Tuominen & Lehtonen, 2017) and for addressing the paradox of embedded agency and institutional complexity (Delbridge & Edwards, 2013;Mutch, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governing and (re)producing project governance

Avila¹,

Andres²

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2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 CONTRACTUAL AND RELATIONAL INTERPLAY IN PPPs 2.3 REALIST SOCIAL THEORY FOR STUDYING GOVERNING ACTIVITY 2.3.1 Governance Structures and Situational Logics 2.3.2 Governing Activity: Positioned-Practices and Reflexivity 2.3.3 Cycles of Interplay and Levels of Change 2.4 TOWARD A PROCESS FRAMEWORK OF GOVERNING ACTIVITY IN ONGOING PPPs 2.5 ILLUSTRATIVE CASE 2.5.1 Approach and Methods 2.5.2 Functional Change as a Triggering Event 2.5.3 Governing Activity 2.5.4 Complementarity/Substitution from a Dynamic Perspective 2.5.5 Cycles of Governing Activity and Underlying Managerial Struggle 2.6 DISCUSSION 2.6.1 Complexity of the Interplay Between Contractual and Relational Governance 2.6.2 Governing Activity and Governance Structure 2.6.

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Harnessing the temporal and projective attributes of human agency to promote anticipatory climate change adaptation

et al. 2022

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Human agency is seen as a critical component of adaptive capacity concerning environmental change. This capacity may entail social actor's ability to learn from past experience, and create opportunities in the present for dealing with uncertainty and change in the future. However, it also means that actors need to be able to overturn structural barriers that impede anticipatory adaptation to climate change such as lack of political leadership, power imbalances, acceptance of climate risks and willingness to act. While scholarship around questions of structural barriers is common in environmental studies literature, there is less understanding about how future thinking could help to strengthen human agency. Harnessing the temporal and projective attributes of human agency by which social actors can exert influence over the future and create solutions may comprise a promising way forward. This paper investigates how social actors understand past social and environmental change and explores how scenario planning may help actors apply their understanding of changes over time to devise policies for climate change adaptation. The paper applies this exploratory lens to an Australian coastal local government area engaged in scenario planning and adaptation pathways planning. Findings indicate that the temporality aspect of agency applied to solving complex issues and overcoming structural barriers manifests differently from an individual to a collective perspective. This means that while scenario planning and adaptation pathways planning helps with anticipatory identification and experimentation, this may not be sufficient to overturn structural barriers to adaptation in the short-term.

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The Emergence of Transformative Agency in Professional Work

Cited by 26 publications

References 65 publications

Varieties of agencies during working life changes

Varieties of agencies during working life changes

Governing and (re)producing project governance

Harnessing the temporal and projective attributes of human agency to promote anticipatory climate change adaptation

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