Roles positions, and agents can each have subparts. Aggregate actors are not compositional with respect to intentionality. Each actor, regardless of whether it has parts, or is part of a larger whole, is taken to be intentional. Each actor has inherent freedom and is therefore ultimately unpredictable. There can be inteintional dependencies between the whole and its parts, e.g., a dependenciy by the whole on its parts to maintain unity. (p17)

The agent, role, position distinction provides a way to separately identify those dependencies that are attributable to a role, as opposed to those that are attributable directly to a concret agent. Performance measures, for example, are typically characteristics of a concret agent. Training and education background pertain to an agent, dince they accompany the agent when he/she moves to another position (e.g., the medical degree of Doctor). Qualification requirements , however, pertain to positions and roles (e.g., the position of a Chief Surgeon). (p24)

When we separate out these "components" of a social actor, each component is a partial description of the social actor. Each component gives some hints about how the social actor might behave, or is expected to behave, in some specialized, narrow context. Such hints are useful because they give a first-cut approximation, thsu simplifying the picture. But we also need to recognize its limitations, because they can often be misleading. It does not take the other aspects of the social actor into account. The behaviour of the social actor can only be understood in its totality.(p24)