Upward influence tactics in virtual work settings

The globalization of work within organizations has generated a greater need for all type of workers to exert interpersonal influence through technology-mediated communication tools. This paper contributes to the analysis of interpersonal relations in virtual environments from a specific perspective: the choice of upward influence tactics. We propose that virtual work settings may impact the upward influence tactic selected, as well as the communication medium used to enact it. In particular, we study whether the types of upward influence strategies found in presence environments, are relevant in a virtual work context. This research also analyzes the link between communication media and influence tactics used. Preliminary results suggest that there is an influence tactic that is specific of virtual work relations, which may be called intermediation and consists of finding an intermediary that is well connected with the target and can help in defining the best approach by the agent

Integration of a Proximity Detection Prototype into a VO Developed with PANGEA

This article presents a proximity detection prototype that uses ZigBee technology developed using the agent’s platform PANGEA (Platform for Automatic coNstruction of orGanizations of intElligent Agents). PANGEA is an agent platform to develop open multiagent systems, specifically those including organizational aspects such as virtual agent organizations. The platform allows the complete management of organizations and offers tools to the end user. Due to the specific characteristics of this prototype, PANGEA is the perfect candidate to develop the prototype that will be included in the future in an integral system primarily oriented to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into the workplace

An agent-based framework for selection of partners in dynamic virtual enterprises

Advances in computer networking technology and open system standards have made practically feasible to create and manage virtual enterprises. A virtual enterprise, VE, is usually defined as a temporary alliance of enterprises that come together to share their skills, core competencies, and resources in order to better respond to business opportunities, and whose cooperation is supported by computer networks. The materialization of this paradigm, although enabled by recent advances in communication technologies, computer networks and logistics, requires an appropriate architectural framework and support tools. In this paper we propose an agent-based model of a dynamic VE to support the different selection processes that are used in selecting the partners for a dynamic VE, where the partners of a VE are represented by agents. Such a framework will form the basis for tools that provide automated support for creation, and operation, of dynamic virtual enterprises

Towards trusted volunteer grid environments

Intensive experiences show and confirm that grid environments can be considered as the most promising way to solve several kinds of problems relating either to cooperative work especially where involved collaborators are dispersed geographically or to some very greedy applications which require enough power of computing or/and storage. Such environments can be classified into two categories; first, dedicated grids where the federated computers are solely devoted to a specific work through its end. Second, Volunteer grids where federated computers are not completely devoted to a specific work but instead they can be randomly and intermittently used, at the same time, for any other purpose or they can be connected or disconnected at will by their owners without any prior notification. Each category of grids includes surely several advantages and disadvantages; nevertheless, we think that volunteer grids are very promising and more convenient especially to build a general multipurpose distributed scalable environment. Unfortunately, the big challenge of such environments is, however, security and trust. Indeed, owing to the fact that every federated computer in such an environment can randomly be used at the same time by several users or can be disconnected suddenly, several security problems will automatically arise. In this paper, we propose a novel solution based on identity federation, agent technology and the dynamic enforcement of access control policies that lead to the design and implementation of trusted volunteer grid environments.Comment: 9 Pages, IJCNC Journal 201

Information requirements for enterprise systems

In this paper, we discuss an approach to system requirements engineering, which is based on using models of the responsibilities assigned to agents in a multi-agency system of systems. The responsibility models serve as a basis for identifying the stakeholders that should be considered in establishing the requirements and provide a basis for a structured approach, described here, for information requirements elicitation. We illustrate this approach using a case study drawn from civil emergency management

A distributed multi-agent framework for shared resources scheduling

Nowadays, manufacturers have to share some of their resources with partners due to the competitive economic environment. The management of the availability periods of shared resources causes a problem because it is achieved by the scheduling systems which assume a local environment where all resources are on the same site. Therefore, distributed scheduling with shared resources is an important research topic in recent years. In this communication, we introduce the architecture and behavior of DSCEP framework (distributed, supervisor, customer, environment, and producer) under shared resources situation with disturbances. We are using a simple example of manufacturing system to illustrate the ability of DSCEP framework to solve the shared resources scheduling problem in complex systems