Organization of Multi-Agent Systems: An Overview

In complex, open, and heterogeneous environments, agents must be able to reorganize towards the most appropriate organizations to adapt unpredictable environment changes within Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). Types of reorganization can be seen from two different levels. The individual agents level (micro-level) in which an agent changes its behaviors and interactions with other agents to adapt its local environment. And the organizational level (macro-level) in which the whole system changes it structure by adding or removing agents. This chapter is dedicated to overview different aspects of what is called MAS Organization including its motivations, paradigms, models, and techniques adopted for statically or dynamically organizing agents in MAS.Comment: 12 page

Organisational Abstractions for the Analysis and Design of Multi-Agent Systems

The architecture of a multi-agent system can naturally be viewed as a computational organisation. For this reason, we believe organisational abstractions should play a central role in the analysis and design of such systems. To this end, the concepts of agent roles and role models are increasingly being used to specify and design multi-agent systems. However, this is not the full picture. In this paper we introduce three additional organisational concepts - organisational rules, organisational structures, and organisational patterns - that we believe are necessary for the complete specification of computational organisations. We view the introduction of these concepts as a step towards a comprehensive methodology for agent-oriented systems

Self-Configuring Socio-Technical Systems: Redesign at Runtime

Modern information systems are becoming more and more socio-technical systems, namely systems composed of human (social) agents and software (technical) systems operating together in a common environment. The structure of such systems has to evolve dynamically in response to the changes of the environment. When new requirements are introduced, when an actor leaves the system or when a new actor comes, the socio-technical structure needs to be redesigned and revised. In this paper, an approach to dynamic reconfiguration of a socio-technical system structure in response to internal or external changes is proposed. The approach is based on planning techniques for generating possible alternative configurations, and local strategies for their evaluation. The reconfiguration mechanism is presented, which makes the socio-technical system self-configuring, and the approach is discussed and analyzed on a simple case study

Motivating Accounting Professionals in Romania. Analysis after Five Decades of Communist Ideology and Two Decades of Accounting Harmonization

Our paper focuses on accounting professionals in Romania as being a significant element when considering a national accounting system that went through complex accounting reforms of more than two decades. Since accounting policy represents an area of social and economic policy we must also consider the five decades of communist regime leaving their fingerprint on the Romanian society. It is our objective to capture the perception of the Romanian accounting profession that actually witnessed all these processes of transformation. More precisely we focus on exploring the motivational pattern of Romanian accounting professionals, arguing that our results could offer useful insights when it comes to accountants’ drivers to participate in the international accounting arena and therefore in the international accounting harmonization process. Our theoretical framework is based on Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. Since Herzberg in his studies used the interview method, for more consistency, we found an interview-based qualitative approach to be the most appropriate to our research. One of our conclusions is that Herzberg’s theory can identify and explain reasonably well the motivational factors of today’s Romanian accounting professionals. However, the theory must be adjusted for higher relevance: (1) salary is not seen hygiene but a motivator, (2) advancement is not a motivator but hygiene, and (3) team/staff with strong motivational effect must be added to the model. Motivators and Hygiene factors were directly related to the level of hierarchy and redrafted a different pattern within the structure of an entity. By analyzing the information being obtained through the interview process, our paper offers an overview on the particular work environment that characterizes the accounting professional of late Romanian modernity, after five decades of an ideology based system. The results of the performed analysis document the fact that alienation and dependence have not become characteristics of the modern accounting professional. Furthermore, dehumanization and exploitation prove to be, in the case of the Romanian accounting system, inevitable consequences of the division of labor and the development of private property.Drivers, Motivators, Hygiene Factors, Job Satisfaction, Labor Behavior, Organizational Culture, Human Resource Accounting

Do management accounting systems influence organizational change or vice-versa? Evidence from a case of constructive research in the Healthcare Sector

The paper aims to analyze the process of change of management accounting system (MAS) as a consequence of changes in the complexity of organizational structure in healthcare. It analyzes the process of change of MAS according with the theoretical frameworks of Habermas (1987) and Laughlin (1991).In this organizational changes are seen as the consequence of the interaction between tangible and intangible elements of the organization and between the organization and the external environment. The process of change was not studied from an external standpoint, but through an active participation and contribution of the researchers in the process of change itself. Using a constructive approach, the researchers were actively involved with the actors of the change in developing the process of change, and in facilitating the overcoming of some cultural gaps and resistance which could arise in professional organization. The paper provides empirical insights of the characteristics of the process of change of MAS in a Heath Care setting with a particular focus on aspects characterizing the process of change itself. Finding suggests the importance of putting high attention in the development of the process of change and underlines how the attention to peculiarities of the organization, in to this phase, could make the MAS able to impact on the behaviours and culture of professionals.Management Accounting Change, Healthcare Accounting, Habermas