Agency may refer to:

Organizations

Institution Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

, governmental or others **

Advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients **

Employment agency An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...

, a business that serves as a representative, acting on behalf of another **

Government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...

, a department of a local or national government responsible for the oversight and administration of a specific function ***

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, nicknamed "The Agency" ** International agency, an inter-governmental body **

News agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

Talent agency Talent has two principal meanings: * Talent (measurement), an ancient unit of mass and value * Talent (skill), a group of aptitudes useful for some activities; talents may refer to aptitudes themselves or to possessors of those talents Talent may ...

Social science

* Agency, the abstract principle that autonomous beings, agents, are capable of acting by themselves; see

Autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

Agency (law) The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a set of contractual, quasi-contractual and non-contractual fiduciary relationships that involve a person, called the agent, that is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the p ...

, a person acting on behalf of another person *

Agency (moral) Moral agency is an individual's ability to make morality, moral choices based on some notion of ethics, right and wrong and to be held accountable for these actions. A moral agent is "a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and ...

, capacity for making moral judgments *

Agency (philosophy) Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. It is independent of the moral dimension, which is called moral agency. In ''sociology'', an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure. Notably, though, the prima ...

, the capacity of an autonomous agent to act, relating to action theory in philosophy * Agency (psychology), the ability to recognize or attribute agency in humans and non-human animals *

Agency (sociology) In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential. For instance, structure consists of those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, custo ...

, the ability of social actors to make independent choices, relating to action theory in sociology *

Agency and structure In the social sciences there is a standing debate over the primacy of structure or agency in shaping human behaviour. ''Structure'' is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. ''Agency' ...

, ability of an individual to organize future situations and resource distribution

Places

* Agency (administrative division) *

Agency, Iowa Agency is a city in Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 620 at the 2020 census. It is the historic site of an Indian trading post and the grave of Chief Wapello. History An Indian agency In United States history, an Indian ...

, US * Agency, Missouri, US *

Agency, Montana Rocky Boy's Agency is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hill County, Montana, United States. The population was 355 at the 2010 census. The settlement developed around the US Indian agency for the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Geography Rock ...

, US * Agency Township (disambiguation), name of townships in four US states

Arts, entertainment and media

* ''Agency'' (novel), a science fiction novel by William Gibson * ''The Agency'' (comics) * '' The Agency: Covert Ops'', a spy-themed massively multiplayer online shooter video game

Film and television

* ''The Agency'' (film), a 1980 Canadian film starring Lee Majors * ''The Agency'' (2001 TV series), an American action-drama * ''The Agency'' (2007 TV series), an American reality series * ''

Morgana Robinson's The Agency ''Morgana Robinson's The Agency'' is a British mockumentary about fictional talent agency Mann Management, with impressions by Morgana Robinson. In a seven-part show, Robinson plays the roster of talent agent Vincent Mann. It was broadcast on BBC ...

'', a 2016 British TV mockumentary * The Agency, a fictional government organization in the 2000 TV series ''

The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in ''Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devote ...

'' * ''Agency'' (South Korean TV series), a 2023 television series

Other uses

Agency in Mormonism Agency (also referred to as free agency or moral agency), in the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), is "the privilege of choice which was introduced by God the Eternal Father to all of his spirit children in th ...