Managing Agentic Technology: Distinguishing and Equalizing Human and Material Agencies
Virginia Leavell, Bei Yan · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2022
Organizations are increasingly deploying algorithmic agents to accomplish their core functions. Thus, a critical question is how to manage algorithmic agents to achieve organizational goals. Agentic technologies act without human intervention. The human management of algorithmic agents is, in its most basic form, a practice of managing material agency. Through qualitative analysis of 16 years (2005-2021) of archival data on English Wikipedia, the study explicates the process of managing algorithms in organizations. Our analysis revealed five principles that either prioritized human agency over material agency or equalized the two. To prioritize humans, the organizational structures, norms, and policies are designed to support human work while limiting the speed and space of algorithmic actions. When humans and algorithms are treated equally, the consequences rather than mechanisms of actions are scrutinized and algorithms are managed only after negative impacts occur. These findings provide initial insights regarding the management of algorithms in organizations through the agency perspective.