ABSTRACT

Translated either as an act or non-act, agency becomes a force of change. Releasing and translating agency from its construction within the dominant Western frame of Enlightenment allows organizational scholars to recognize and empower contextually appropriate frameworks and underpinnings of agency as well as reflexively examine their own inherent biases. This chapter outlines the use of postcolonial ethnography to study agency and illustrates the value of this approach based on the third author's case study of market women in post-conflict Liberia. To conclude, it discusses the methodological implications and consequences of using a postcolonial perspective on agency for organizational research and provides considerations for organizational practice. The chapter then, discusses An Illustrative Case of Agency Translated: "Agencies" among Liberian Market Women. It also then illustrates Cruz's case study, the process of translation during fieldwork, providing important insights for organizational scholars interested in deploying a more process-based and situational approach to studying agency.