A meta ontology for organizations

Abstract

The research reported upon in this paper aims at developing a meta ontology for organizations, i.e. a schema for devising the ontology of a particular organization or a reference ontology for a class of organizations. The prospect of such a meta ontology is provided by the -theory that underlies the DEMO methodology. General requirements regarding such a meta ontology are stated. The proposed meta ontology satisfies all of them. It has the added advantage that there are socionomic laws at its core; this reinforces the ontological quality. It has been applied in several health care cases in practice, out of which a reference model for health care organizations has arisen.