A coherent class of modelling constructs found in a modelling language. The modelling dimensions are defined taking into account the main aspects in which a subject can be modelled. In the case of organizational models, we can identify four commonly occurring modelling dimensions: organizational structure, organizational interaction, organizational functions and organizational norms.
Published in Chapter:
Modelling Dimensions for Agent Organizations
Luciano R. Coutinho (University of São Paulo, Brazil), Jaime S. Sichman (University of São Paulo, Brazil), and Olivier Boissier (ENS Mines Saint-Etienne, France)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 33
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-256-5.ch002
Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss the concepts of agent organization, organizational model, and review some existing organizational models. Before the review, we discuss how to classify the diverse aspects of agent organizations currently captured by organizational models. These aspects are named “modelling dimensions”. We show that there are at least four basic dimensions: the structural dimension mainly composed of roles and groups, the interactive dimension characterized by dialogical interaction structures, the functional dimension formed by goal/task decomposition, and the normative dimension in which we find the concepts of norms, rights, rules, and so forth. Apart from the basic dimensions, we also identify four other complementary dimensions: environment, evaluation, evolution, and ontology. These are related to the aspects of situatedeness, measurement, adaptation, and domain specific semantics of agent organizations. Finally, we compare the organizational models reviewed and describe how the idea of modelling dimension can help in finding correspondences between organizational models.