ENTERPRISE ONTOLOGY - UNDERSTANDING THE ESSENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATION

Abstract

Enterprise ontology, as defined in this paper, is the essential knowledge of the construction and the operation of the organization of an enterprise, completely independent of the ways in which they are realized and implemented. A methodology is presented for producing the ontology of an enterprise. It has a sound theoretical foundation, which is summarized to the extent needed for understanding the methodology. A small example enterprise serves to illustrate how the methodology works, and to demonstrate the practical usefulness of the notion of enterprise ontology. The motivation for the reported research is the apparent need to make societal institutions, both companies and government agencies, transparent to its customers, as well as to its employees and managers.