%0 Conference Paper %1 SDZB2000 %A di Fenizio, Pietro Speroni %A Dittrich, Peter %A Ziegler, Jens %A Banzhaf, Wolfgang %B German Workshop on Artificial Life (GWAL 2000) %D 2000 %K organizations economics algebra %T Towards a Theory of Organizations %U http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/speronidifenizio01towards.html %X 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.

@inproceedings{SDZB2000, 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.}, added-at = {2007-02-10T18:18:58.000+0100}, author = {di Fenizio, Pietro Speroni and Dittrich, Peter and Ziegler, Jens and Banzhaf, Wolfgang}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f7dbaecdc2a9989ca7183e6943050f63/stefano}, booktitle = {German Workshop on Artificial Life (GWAL 2000)}, citeulike-article-id = {437654}, comment = {The proceedings never went on print so the paper is unfortunately only available electronically at: http://ls11-www.informatik.uni-dortmund.de/people/dittrich//p/SDZB2001gwal.ps.gz}, howpublished = {Only available eletronically}, interhash = {8c3a147cf046baf5618c2753937c12b6}, intrahash = {f7dbaecdc2a9989ca7183e6943050f63}, keywords = {organizations economics algebra}, month = {April}, priority = {0}, timestamp = {2007-02-10T18:18:58.000+0100}, title = {Towards a Theory of Organizations}, url = {http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/speronidifenizio01towards.html}, year = 2000 }