Agency Profile Measure

Wallace Research Symposium on Talent Development

Poster Presentations

Poster Presentation 29 — Agency Profile MeasureRachael Cody & Shannon McDonald

Monday, May 20, 2024, 5:00 – 7:00 pm, Student Union Ballroom, Rooms 330/331

Agentic beliefs demonstrate the extent to which individuals feel capable of shaping their environment. When individuals sense a lack of agency, they may demonstrate a lack of motivation to change their environment. Agency is often viewed as a dichotomy—either as a set of internal traits that in turn shape personal beliefs or through the context of environment, where external factors encourage or constrain one’s agency. However, we argue that it is the friction of both internal and external factors that informs agentic perceptions. We believe that agentic beliefs are multifaceted rather than one-dimensional and formed through individuals’ perceptions of four separate dimensions: Aspiration, Flexibility, Determination, and Empowerment. In our proposal, we will explore the construct of agency and describe an instrument that will help us explore variation in agentic beliefs. We hope that our proposal will provide insight about how to promote agency in the workplace.