Towards a Theory of Organizations (2001)
| Venue: | Proceedings of the German 5th Workshop on Artificial Life |
| Citations: | 7 - 7 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Fenizio01towardsa,
author = {Pietro Speroni Di Fenizio and Peter Dittrich and Wolfgang Banzhaf and Jens Ziegler},
title = {Towards a Theory of Organizations},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the German 5th Workshop on Artificial Life},
year = {2001},
publisher = {University Press}
}
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Abstract
In this paper we develop an algebra to describe organizations. Its application is demonstrated with five examples. We start from definitions given by Fontana (1992) of an organization as a closed and self-maintaining set of interacting objects. We develop a formal framework to describe the inner structure of an organization and a relationship between different organizations. The definitions of intersection and union of organizations are developed. Those definitions naturally give rise to a lattice (an algebraic structure over a partially ordered set) which provides a precise basis to study the hierarchical nature of organizations. Some fundamental properties are described and the usefulness of the mathematical concepts demonstrated by application.
