USING SEMANTIC ANALYSIS AND NORM ANALYSIS TO MODEL ORGANISATIONS Andy Salter, Kecheng Liu School of Computing, Staffordshire University, Beaconside, Stafford, UK a.m.salter@staffs.ac.uk, k.liu@staffs.ac.uk http://www.soc.staffs.ac.uk/~cmrams/, http://www.soc.staffs.ac.uk/~cmtkl/ Keywords: semantic analysis, norm analysis, affordance, organisational modelling, information systems Abstract: Organisations can be represented in the form of human agents and their patterns of behaviour, which can be modelled using the method of Semantic Analysis. Norms establish how and when an instance of a pattern of behaviour (or affordance) will occur. The norms are identified using the method of Norm Analysis, which is comprised of the techniques of responsibility analysis, information identification, trigger analysis and norm specification. This paper addresses how the results of Semantic Analysis and Norm Analysis may be used to produce a semantic model representing the behaviour of the organisation. The methods are illustrated using an example of borrowing books from a library. 1. INTRODUCTION Organisations are complex entities that normally exist for their purposes. To achieve their objectives, organisations must use information for coordinated actions. It has become recognised that business organisations can only be studied and modelled properly as social units, looking beyond the information to the users and manipulators themselves in their particular context (Falkenberg et al. 1998, Carvalho 2000). By modelling the semantics underlying the social organisms and their interactions which make up an organisation it is possible to more accurately reflect the requirements of information systems which can benefit the organisation and its members. This paper considers the method of Semantic Analysis (Stamper et al. 1988, Liu 2000, Salter 2001), which determines the underlying semantics of an organisation and the relationship between the human agents and their patterns of behaviour, and Norm Analysis (Stamper et al. 1988, Liu and Ong 1999, Liu 2000) which extracts the norms that define these patterns of behaviour. The paper then considers the connection between the norms, the agents and the possible patterns of behaviour. The method is illustrated using a simplified model of a library featuring membership and the borrowing of books. 2. AFFORDANCES, PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOUR Affordance is the term introduced by Gibson (Gibson 1986) given to a collection of patterns of behaviour which define an object or a potential action available to members of a society. The patterns of behaviour are defined within the context of the society and shared by members of that society. A cup for example can be defined as an affordance because it is associated with a set of patterns of behaviour including being able to contain things, the ability to be placed upright on a fairly horizontal, level surface, the possibility to be drunk out of in an acceptable manner (Stamper 1985). A contract is an affordance that is determined by the patterns of behaviour of the material it is presented on (paper or electronic) and the behaviour it generates in the parties that are affected by it. There is a set of affordances which are termed agents. These agents also exhibit patterns of behaviour, for example a person is born, dies is able to manipulate (other persons and things) and is able to communicate. What makes these affordances