A Foundational Ontology of Organizations and Roles

Abstract. In this paper we propose a foundational ontology of the social concepts of organization and role which structure institutions. We identify which axioms model social concepts like organization and role and which properties distinguish them from other categories like objects and agents: the organizational structure of institutions, the relation between roles and organizations, and the powers among the components of an organization. All social concepts depend on descriptions defining them, which are collectively accepted, and the description defining the components of organizations, including roles, are included in the description of the organizations they belong to. Thus, the relational dependence of roles means that they are defined in the organizations they belong to. Finally, powers inside organizations are defined by the fact that components of an organization can access the state of the organization whose definition they depend on and of the other components, thus violatin...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: DALT
• Authors: Guido Boella, Leendert W. N. van der Torre
• Keywords: DALT 2006, Foundational Ontology, Intelligent Agents, Organization, Social Concepts