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Presentation by:
Rohan Desai (109)
Manpreet Mann (126)
Aditya Nair (130)
Abhrajit Sett (141)
Sreejit Sukumar (152)
Vishal Thakkar (154)
Models of agency

§›t defines what is normatively good action.

§People tend to interpret actions in a context specific way

§The author has defined two models of agencies - Disjoint and conjoint.

a
 
  


Assumes that agency is responsible of Assumes that agency emanates from
obligations and expectations of within the individual which influences
others. the environment.

Good action is defined as those that Good action is defined as those that
adjust to the environment and influence the environment according
promote interdependence with other to individual motives, goals and
people. preferences.
?


D

To define 2 models of agency, The author
cites an example of Hurricane Katrina.

When: 29 August, 2005

Where: New Orleans and surrounding places
People impacted: 60 (PGDM B)
People dead: 45
People survived: 15

The ideologies of people were defined in the

pretext of this calamity:
Those who choose to stay: STAYERS
Those who choose to leave : LEAVERS
Study 1
j we analyze how two samples of observers²relief
workers and ³lay´ observers²perceived Leavers
and Stayers.
j both samples of observers will (a) rely on the
disjoint model, and thus (b) perceive Leavers as
j influencing agents and Stayers as lacking agency
j To bring out the perspectives of the observers on
the affected people, a study was performed on 461
observers
j 2 tasks: person descriptive task and vignette task
 Result
j Stayers were described as passive, irresponsible,
inflexible and low arousal of emotions, inactive states
such as unprepared and defeated.
j Levers were described as independent, responsible
and high arousal emotions such as planning and
preparedness.

Drawback:
j The observers assumed that influencing the
environment was the only way to be agentic. Stayer¶s
actions were not viewed as making sense and hence
their different socio-cultural perspectives were lost.
 Study 2

j ›t examines the first hand account of Katrina

Survivors.
j Purpose: To compare the observer¶s perception
with survivor¶s understanding of themselves.
j To categorize the social class and race of leavers
and stayers
j conducted 79 interviews in total.
j Survivors were enquired about their personal
experiences along with demographic
information.
 Results
j Two groups were equally likely to refer to family,
mention class and describe their attachment to
home.
j Leavers were generally described as influential
agents who exert control over their environments.
j Leavers emphasized more than stayers on the
fear of losing independence in the hurricane¶s
aftermath.
j Stayers emphasized the importance of connection
and caring for others.
j They placed more emphasis on strength and not
giving up by adjusting to their limited options
Relevance to Organizational Behavior
 aonclusion

j ›t brings about the two aspects of human

behaviors i.e. collectivism and individualism.
j Disjoint agency is possible only for people in
context with an abundance of resources.
j The disjoint can conceal the relationship between
other¶s actions and the resource structure of the
environment.
j ›n east Asian and Asian American contexts, the
conjoint model is more prevalent than in
European American context.