“Positive Agency Theory” in Explaining Social and Labor Relations in The Academic Sphere

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In this article, the authors propose to consider the possibility of using the “positive agency theory” to explain the mechanism of decision-making by key subjects of social and labor relations using cases of the academic sphere. The interest of the authors in the academic field is due to the development of research in the field of increasing the efficiency of the return on the use of human capital in modern Russian universities. In the first part of the article, the authors consider the main approaches to the analysis of the essence of social and labor relations and, on this basis, offer its comprehensive definition. The central place in the article is devoted to the comparison of “normative agency theory (principal-agent)” and “positive agency theory”; highlighting the features of the positive theory of agency relations and substantiating with its help the process of choosing by the subjects of social and labor relations of one or another type of contracts. The authors pay considerable attention to the characteristics of the factors influencing the choice of the preferred type of contracts – contracts based on behavior, or contracts based on results. Enrichment of the theoretical and methodological apparatus that explains the formation and development of social and labor relations not only with the help of traditional approaches, but also through the achievements of the “positive agency theory”, allows a deeper analysis of the possible causes of inefficient behavior of academic workers in the changing and multitasking environment for the development of modern universities.