The article addresses the topic of “group agency” with respect to large organizations. It undertakes to analyze some of the concrete micro- and meso-level processes (microfoundations) through which large organizations arrive at collective “knowledge” and “action.” The article makes use of the theory of strategic action fields to analyze processes of knowledge and the implementation of organizational intentions. The article describes some of the dysfunctions and disunities that should be expected from these individual-level processes, including principal–agent problems, conflicts of interests and priorities among organizational actors, loose coupling among subunits, and outcomes that are influenced by powerful outsiders. It argues for a limited conception of “bounded localistic organizational rationality” in which organizations have limited coherence, unity, and consistency over time in their beliefs and actions.

中文翻译：

---

作为参与者的组织：组织意图的微观基础

本文针对大型组织讨论“团体代理”的主题。它承诺分析一些具体的微观和中观过程（微观基础），大型组织通过这些过程得出集体的“知识”和“行动”。本文利用战略行动领域的理论来分析知识过程和组织意图的实现。本文描述了这些个体级过程中应预期的某些功能失调和不统一，包括委托人与代理人的问题，组织参与者之间的利益冲突和优先级，子部门之间的松散耦合以及受强大外部人影响的结果。