Abstract
In this paper a new action concept is proposed, within the same tradition of the logical characterization of act descriptions as employed by Kanger, Pörn and Lindhal. The concept sums up a successful goal oriented social activity into a unique assertion referring to the agent who has initiated it. It is argued that this notion allows us to increase the expressiveness of the characterization of agents’ activity within organizations.
For describing the agents’ interaction the normative systems perspective is adopted, viewing such interactions as governed by norms and expressing them in terms of what agents are permitted and obliged to do. In this context, the new concept allows us to cope with normative descriptions that play an important role in organizations: responsibilities.
The minimal properties of this “indirect” agency operator are discussed, and an “influence” operator is also introduced in order to cope with interactions between the different agents. The interest of these concepts within the analysis and specification of organizations is illustrated.
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© 1996 British Computer Society
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Santos, F., Carmo, J. (1996). Indirect Action, Influence and Responsibility. In: Brown, M.A., Carmo, J. (eds) Deontic Logic, Agency and Normative Systems. Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1488-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1488-8_11
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