The reflexivity paradox in work placements: How institutional pressures shape agency and decision-making among business students

Work placements are widely promoted by universities as essential for enhancing graduate employability. However, this discourse often assumes students are free agents, equally positioned to pursue such opportunities. Drawing on Archer’s theory of reflexivity, this study challenges static, individualised accounts of agency by conceptualising universities as structured reflexive spaces that shape, channel and sometimes constrain student deliberation and career-related decision-making. Using qualitative data from focus groups and interviews with 88 business students at a post-1992 1 UK university, we examine how students’ reflexive orientations mediate their engagement with placement schemes. Our findings demonstrate that agency is not a stable trait but a dynamic, relational and emotionally demanding process shaped by institutional narratives, structural inequality and cycles of pressure. We make two key theoretical contributions to Archer’s framework. First, we offer a more dynamic and context-sensitive view of reflexive modes by foregrounding their temporal and relational emergence. Second, we introduce adaptive reflexivity to theorise a strategic yet ambivalent form of agency in which students adjust aspirations under constraint, often misread as disengagement. This study contributes to management learning and education by reframing employability as a structurally mediated process and advocating for more inclusive placement models that support diverse student agency.