Title: Preliminaries to a DOLCE ontology of organisations

Authors: E. Bottazzi, R. Ferrario

Addresses: Philosophy Department, via S. Ottavio, 20, 10124 Torino, Italy. ' Laboratory for Applied Ontology, Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, via alla Cascata 56C, 38123 Trento, Italy

Abstract: This paper presents a preliminary proposal of an ontology of organisations based on descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering (DOLCE). An ontological analysis of organisations is the first, fundamental and ineliminable pillar on which to build a precise and rigorous enterprise modelling. An ontological analysis makes explicit the social structure that underlies every organisational settings. In particular, the paper tries to explain what are organisations, roles and norms, how they are interrelated, what it means for a norm to be valid in an organisation and what it means for an agent to be affiliated to an organisation.

Keywords: organisational ontology; norms; validity; roles; business process integration; organisations; ontological analysis; enterprise modelling; social structure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPIM.2009.032280

International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management, 2009 Vol.4 No.4, pp.225 - 238

Published online: 28 Mar 2010 *

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