On model-based analysis of organizational structures: an assessment of current modeling approaches and application of multi-level modeling in support of design and analysis of organizational structures

Abstract

Conceptual modeling promises to support various analysis questions on organizational structures, such as allocation of tasks, responsibilities, and authority in an organization. In this paper, we first synthesize requirements on an organizational structure analysis from the business scholar literature and assess to what extent and how current modeling languages fulfill these. In particular, we find limitations in the covered scope as well as the information processing capabilities of the reviewed approaches. Second, as a response to identified gaps, we propose multi-level modeling and integrated modeling and programming as a way to support design and analysis of organizational structure. We use the structure of universities as a case scenario. This paper is an extension of our earlier work. Firstly, we add an explicit set of requirements derived from business scholar literature. Secondly, we draw a comparison to the abstraction mechanisms used in conventional meta-modeling, as prominently exemplified by UML class diagrams, and we critically discuss multi-level modeling. Finally, we discuss a prototypical implementation of our multi-level model in the XModeler software tool.