Agency: Taking Stock of Workplace Learning Research

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion of the concept of agency. Agency is understood as a multifaceted construct describing the idea that human beings make choices, act on these choices, and thereby exercise influence on their own lives as well as their environment. We argue that the concept is discussed from three different perspectives in the literature—transformational, dispositional, and relational—that are each related to learning and development in work contexts. These perspectives do not reflect incompatible positions but rather different aspects of the same phenomena. The chapter also offers an avenue of insight into empirical studies that employ agency as a central concept as well as discussions about concepts that closely overlap with ideas of human beings as agents of power and influence.