View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholar Commons | University of South Florida Research University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School January 2012 Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents Elizabeth Kaye Victor University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Scholar Commons Citation Victor, Elizabeth Kaye, "Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents" (2012). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4246 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Structure and Agency: An Analysis of the Impact of Structure on Group Agents by Elizabeth Kaye Victor A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Rebecca Kukla, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Stephen Turner, Ph.D. Colin Heydt, Ph.D. Bryce Hueber, Ph.D Douglas Jesseph, Ph.D. Walter Nord, Ph.D. Date of Approval: May 16, 2012 Keywords: Group Agency, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, Human Resource Management Copyright © 2012, Elizabeth Kaye Victor Dedication I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my father and friend, Joe. Without your encouragement, support, and fortitude I never would have found my own voice and the courage to go off the beaten path in pursuit of my dreams. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the educators and mentors who have had a heavy hand in shaping the course of my academic development. To Valerie Doner, my High School Debate teacher, thank you for showing me that anger in the face of the world is much better expressed through critical inquiry. To Ellen Klein, my undergraduate mentor, thank you for introducing me to Philosophy. To Rebecca Kukla, who has provided me with years of direction and friendship; this project would surely not have been possible without you at the helm. To each of my committee members, Rebecca, Steve, Colin, Bryce, Doug, and Walt, thank you for your support, your belief in me and this project, the endless conversations, and for reading countless drafts and redrafts of this project. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my family and friends. My family’s love and support, both emotionally and financially, has been immeasurable. I have been surrounded by great friends during the past five years, particularly Andrea Pitts, Emre Keskin, Michele Merritt, Pete Olen, Jeff Hinzmann, Sacha Greer, Paul Cudney, and Laura Guidry-Grimes. You all have been the source of delightful and inspiring conversations, intellectual collaborations, shoulders to cry on, tough words when I needed them, and years of fun. Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................................... iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Corporate Persons, Corporate Actions and Agency 1.1 Introduction: Representations of Corporate Agency .......................................10 1.1.1 Agency, Agential Capacities, and Persons .......................................12 1.2 Taxonomy of Firms..........................................................................................18 1.2.1 Group Agents and Organization Structures ......................................22 1.3 Understanding Economic Associations as Associations of Persons ................25 1.4 A Practical Problem .........................................................................................30 1.5 The Politics of Corporate Speech Rights .........................................................33 1.5.1 From the Rights of Corporate Persons to Political Speech ...............35 1.6 First Concern: Economic Associations and Other Associations ......................40 1.6.1 Sphere of Control and Employee Voice ...........................................41 1.7 Second Concern: The Metaphysics behind the Decision .................................43 1.7.1 Contestability as Exit and Voice .......................................................46 1.7.2 Shareholder Primacy and Silencing of Other Stakeholders ..........................49 Chapter 2: The Metaphysics of Group Agents: Groups, Minds, Groups with Minds 2.1 Introduction: Kinds of Groups .........................................................................56 2.1.1 Collectives and Group Agents ..........................................................59 2.1.2 Collective Action and Group Agents ................................................60 2.2 Bratman’s Complexity Ceiling ........................................................................64 2.3 Tuomela’s Structural Passivity ........................................................................71 2.4 Expanding the Scope of Group Capacities: List and Pettit’s Theory ..............75 2.4.1 Taking Group Agency Seriously ......................................................77 2.4.2 The Epistemic Desideratum, Rationality and Truth-tracking ...........80 2.4.3 Spheres of Control, Rights, and Freedom .........................................84 2.4.4 Making Sense of Group Responsibility and Obligations .................90 2.5 Dynamic Group Agents: Moving beyond List and Pettit ................................97 i Chapter 3: External Structures, Firm Agency, and Organizational Design 3.1 Introduction: Shifting Orientations ..................................................................99 3.2 Economic Associations: A Brief History .......................................................103 3.2.1 Measuring Success in Economic Associations ...............................104 3.3 Environmental Pressures and Organizational Design ....................................112 3.3.1 Efficiency and Instituted Knowledge..............................................118 3.3.2 Instituted Knowledge and Moral Reasoning ...................................128 3.3.3 External Assessments of Firm Capacities and Judgments ..............134 3.4 Environmental Values and Moral Reasoning Capacities...............................136 Chapter 4: Corporate Agency and Responsibility 4.1 Introduction: Economic Associations, Responsibility, and Obligations .......139 4.2 List and Pettit’s Account of Responsibility ...................................................143 4.2.1 Situating Group Responsibility .......................................................148 4.3 Moral Respect in Economic Associations .....................................................153 4.3.1 The Role of Identity in Responsibility and Respect .......................154 4.3.2 Rethinking Ideals in Human Resource Management ......................159 4.3.3 A Second Look at Chavez and Weisinger ......................................161 4.4 Group Agents and Group Rights: Revisiting Citizens United .......................166 Conclusion: Moral Economic Group Agents? .................................................................170 Epilogue: Corporate Social Responsibility ......................................................................173 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................184 Legal Cases Cited ............................................................................................................192 ii List of Tables Table 2.1 Discursive Dilemma in Majoritarian Decision Processes..................................82 iii Abstract Different kinds of collectives help to coordinate between individuals and social groups to solve distribution problems, supply goods and services, and enable individuals to live fulfilling lives. Collectives, as part of the process of socialization, contribute to the normalization of behaviors, and consequently, structure our ability to be self-reflective autonomous agents. Contemporary philosophy of action models characterize collective action as the product of individuals who have the proper motivations to perform cooperative activities (bottom-up); or they begin with the social-level phenomena and explain this in terms of individual actions and the mental states that motivate them (top- down). One general goal of this project is to show how and why both of these approaches through focusing solely on the individuals involved fail to capture and account for important types of group actions: those of economic group agents. Group agents, one kind of organized collective, are unique in that they have the potential to develop group-level decision-making processes that result in the capacity of the group to engage in practical reasoning. Because of this capacity, group agents can be stable and respond to reason—capacities we would not expect from other kinds of collectives. Inasmuch as we value the possibility of influencing the