PRO-VE 2003: Processes and Foundations for Virtual Organizations pp 271-278 | Cite as
Organizational Semiotics: A Normative Agent-Based Approach to VE Modelling
Abstract
Organizational Semiotics is the branch of Semiotics that studies the application of the Theory of Signs in organizational contexts. Organizations are based upon co-coordinated patterns of behavior, including social norms. To achieve the required efficacy, an organization may use both norms and communication to co-ordinate the different agents involved in organizational behavior. The formalization of normative agent behavior can be done using Deontic Agency Logic. The implementation can be done using agent-oriented programming. We propose to combine Ontology Charts, Norm Analysis, Deontic Agency Logic and Agent-Oriented Programming in order to create normative agent-based models of the structure and the dynamics of Virtual Enterprises (VE). This approach seems to be more resistant to organizational change than pure technology-oriented approaches.
Keywords
Modal Logic Virtual Organization Deontic Logic Virtual Enterprise Ontological DependencyReferences
- 1.Aqvist, L. Deontic Logic. In D. Gabbay and F. Guenther (Eds.), Handbook of Philosophical Logic vol. II, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1984, pp. 605–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 2.Austin, J. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, 1962.Google Scholar
- 3.Belnap, N. Backwards and Forwards in the Modal Logic of Agency. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. II, no. 4, 1991, pp 777–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 4.Gibson, J. The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, USA, 1966.Google Scholar
- Heidegger, M. Being and Time. Harper * Row, New York, USA, 1962.Google Scholar
- 6.Liu, K. and A. Dix. Norm Governed Agents in CSCW. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Computational Semiotics, Paris, France, 1997.Google Scholar
- 7.Meyer, J. A Different Approach to Deontic Logic: Deontic Logic Viewed as a Variant of Dynamic Logic. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 29 (1), 1988, 109–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 8.Morris, C. Signs, Language and Behaviour. Braziller, New York, 1946.Google Scholar
- 9.Peirce, C. Collected papers of Ch. S. Peirce (8 vols.), C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss (Eds). Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1931–1958.Google Scholar
- 10.Santos F. and J. Carmo. Indirect Action, Influence and Responsibility. In Brown and Carmo (Eds.), Deontic Logic, Agency and Normative Systems, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1996.Google Scholar
- 11.Shannon, C. and W. Weaver. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1949.Google Scholar
- 12.Stamper, R. Information in Business and Administrative Systems. John Wiley * Sons, 1973.Google Scholar
- Stamper, R. Signs, Information, Norms and Systems. In Holmqvist et al. (Eds.), Signs of Work, Semiosis and Information Processing in Organizations, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1996.Google Scholar
- 14.von Wright, G. Deontic Logic. Mind, 60, 1951, pp. 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar