A Semantic Foundation for Organizational Structures: A Multi-level Approach

Conceptualizing the organizational structure domain requires considering multiple levels of classification, with both types and types of types included in the domain of enquiry (e.g., Types of organizational units and particular organizational units). In this paper we propose a semantic foundation for the organizational structure domain that is capable to address the multi-level modeling issues. We present a core organizational structure ontology built with the combination of a foundational ontology (UFO) and a multi-level modeling theory (MLT). This ontology serves to provide semantic foundations for enterprise modeling languages but also as a basis for the development of enterprise-specific ontologies. We discuss our contributions with respect to existing multi-level modeling approaches and with respect to a number of prominent enterprise modeling frameworks, languages and enterprise ontologies.