In the paper we introduce a quantitative measure of autonomy in multiagent interactions. We quantify and analyse different types of agent autonomy: (a) decision autonomy versus action autonomy, (b) autonomy with respect to an agent’s user, (c) autonomy with respect to other agents and groups of agents, and (d) a measure of group autonomy that accounts for the degree with which one group depends...

Professional nurse autonomy, an essential attribute of a discipline striving for full professional status, is often confused with personal autonomy, work autonomy or aggregate professional autonomy. Using Walker & Avant's (1995) model for concept analysis, this paper presents an analysis of professional nurse autonomy. Professional nurse autonomy is defined as belief in the centrality of the cl...

BACKGROUND Lower patient preferences for autonomy in management decision making during asthma exacerbations have been associated with an increased risk for future hospital admissions. We sought to examine patient preferences for asthma self-management autonomy, and the clinical and psychosocial factors associated with autonomy preferences. METHODS A cross sectional observational study was per...

The importance of women’s decision-making autonomy has recently emerged as a key factor in influencing reproductive preferences and demand for family planning in developing countries. In this study, the effect of direct indicators of women’s decision-making autonomy on fertility preferences and ever-use of modern contraception is examined using logistic regression models with and without proxy ...

The high prevalence of child under-nutrition remains a profound challenge in the developing world. Maternal autonomy was examined as a determinant of breast feeding and infant growth in children 3-5 months of age. Cross-sectional baseline data on 600 mother-infant pairs were collected in 60 villages in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. The mothers were enrolled in a longitudinal randomized behaviora...

A growing body of empirical literature shows that there is a negative relationship between a person’s educational achievements and her fertility decisions. Caution should be exercised before assuming that these results are due to the negative impact of education on the preference for child quantity. The relationship is much less straightforward. Becker[5], [6] and Becker and Lewis[7] convincing...

This study investigated professional empowerment of junior middle school teachers in Taiwan, compared the difference on the sense of autonomy in background variables, and explored the extent to which professional power explained professional efficacy, using questionnaire method. The results showed that (1) the sense of professional empowerment of junior middle school teachers was on the middle ...

While modern software companies strive to increase team autonomy enable them successfully operate the piece of they develop and deploy, efficient ways orchestrate work multiple autonomous teams working in parallel are still poorly understood. In this paper, we report how is maintained at Spotify scale, based on retrospectives, interviews with managers archival analysis corporate databases proce...

Autonomy is an often cited but rarely agreed upon agent characteristic. Although no definition of agent autonomy is universally accepted, exploring the concept of autonomy is important because autonomy influences and is influenced by the degree of trust that agent designers and users place in their agents, the effectiveness of agent-based problem solving, and the organizational structure of age...

Objective: The goal of this study was to test the degree to which client clinical characteristics and environmental context and social workers’ practice values and experience influenced support for client’s autonomy and willingness to engage in shared decision making (SDM), and whether willingness to engage in SDM was mediated by support for autonomy. Method: A randomized factorial survey of so...