The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies

Hans Weigand; Paul Johannesson; Giancarlo Guizzardi

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies

Hans Weigand^*, Paul Johannesson, Giancarlo Guizzardi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Organizational decisions are usually constrained by policies and rules, sometimes up to the point of completely automated decision making. Policies exist on multiple levels within the organization and require organizational power to be created. They are typically expressed in a policy document that has multiple practical functions. Drawing on and extending the UFO-L ontology on legal positions, we offer a critical analysis of the relationship between policy and policy document and make an argument for the dual nature of policies. We present four ontological patterns that we claim to be fundamental for organizations as social and economic phenomena. These patterns address: (1) organizational coordination and policy, (2) policy documents, (3) delegation, (4) community ruling. For an initial evaluation, the patterns are exemplified in the university domain.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Practice of Enterprise Modeling
Subtitle of host publication	17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings
Editors	Elda Paja, Jelena Zdravkovic, Evangelia Kavakli, Janis Stirna
Place of Publication	Cham, Switzerland
Publisher	Springer
Pages	279-294
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-031-77908-4
ISBN (Print)	978-3-031-77907-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2025
Event	17th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modeling Forum, PoEM 2024 - Stockholm, Sweden Duration: 3 Dec 2024 → 5 Dec 2024 Conference number: 17

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Publisher	Springer
Volume	538
ISSN (Print)	1865-1348
ISSN (Electronic)	1865-1356

Conference

Conference	17th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modeling Forum, PoEM 2024
Abbreviated title	PoEM 2024
Country/Territory	Sweden
City	Stockholm
Period	3/12/24 → 5/12/24

Keywords

2025 OA procedure
policies
UFO-L
ontology of organizations

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

Cite this

Weigand, H., Johannesson, P., & Guizzardi, G. (2025). The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies. In E. Paja, J. Zdravkovic, E. Kavakli, & J. Stirna (Eds.), The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings (pp. 279-294). (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing; Vol. 538). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

Weigand, Hans ; Johannesson, Paul ; Guizzardi, Giancarlo. / The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies. The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings. editor / Elda Paja ; Jelena Zdravkovic ; Evangelia Kavakli ; Janis Stirna. Cham, Switzerland : Springer, 2025. pp. 279-294 (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing).

@inproceedings{9c98fd7466fb4856a2c2ad7de4d784bf,

title = "The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies",

abstract = "Organizational decisions are usually constrained by policies and rules, sometimes up to the point of completely automated decision making. Policies exist on multiple levels within the organization and require organizational power to be created. They are typically expressed in a policy document that has multiple practical functions. Drawing on and extending the UFO-L ontology on legal positions, we offer a critical analysis of the relationship between policy and policy document and make an argument for the dual nature of policies. We present four ontological patterns that we claim to be fundamental for organizations as social and economic phenomena. These patterns address: (1) organizational coordination and policy, (2) policy documents, (3) delegation, (4) community ruling. For an initial evaluation, the patterns are exemplified in the university domain.",

keywords = "2025 OA procedure, policies, UFO-L, ontology of organizations",

author = "Hans Weigand and Paul Johannesson and Giancarlo Guizzardi",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2025.; 17th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modeling Forum, PoEM 2024 , PoEM 2024 ; Conference date: 03-12-2024 Through 05-12-2024",

year = "2025",

month = nov,

day = "30",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-031-77907-7",

series = "Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing",

publisher = "Springer",

pages = "279--294",

editor = "Elda Paja and Jelena Zdravkovic and Evangelia Kavakli and Janis Stirna",

booktitle = "The Practice of Enterprise Modeling",

address = "Germany",

}

Weigand, H, Johannesson, P & Guizzardi, G 2025, The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies. in E Paja, J Zdravkovic, E Kavakli & J Stirna (eds), The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol. 538, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 279-294, 17th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modeling Forum, PoEM 2024 , Stockholm, Sweden, 3/12/24. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies. / Weigand, Hans; Johannesson, Paul; Guizzardi, Giancarlo.
The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings. ed. / Elda Paja; Jelena Zdravkovic; Evangelia Kavakli; Janis Stirna. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2025. p. 279-294 (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing; Vol. 538).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies

AU - Weigand, Hans

AU - Johannesson, Paul

AU - Guizzardi, Giancarlo

N1 - Conference code: 17

PY - 2025/11/30

Y1 - 2025/11/30

N2 - Organizational decisions are usually constrained by policies and rules, sometimes up to the point of completely automated decision making. Policies exist on multiple levels within the organization and require organizational power to be created. They are typically expressed in a policy document that has multiple practical functions. Drawing on and extending the UFO-L ontology on legal positions, we offer a critical analysis of the relationship between policy and policy document and make an argument for the dual nature of policies. We present four ontological patterns that we claim to be fundamental for organizations as social and economic phenomena. These patterns address: (1) organizational coordination and policy, (2) policy documents, (3) delegation, (4) community ruling. For an initial evaluation, the patterns are exemplified in the university domain.

AB - Organizational decisions are usually constrained by policies and rules, sometimes up to the point of completely automated decision making. Policies exist on multiple levels within the organization and require organizational power to be created. They are typically expressed in a policy document that has multiple practical functions. Drawing on and extending the UFO-L ontology on legal positions, we offer a critical analysis of the relationship between policy and policy document and make an argument for the dual nature of policies. We present four ontological patterns that we claim to be fundamental for organizations as social and economic phenomena. These patterns address: (1) organizational coordination and policy, (2) policy documents, (3) delegation, (4) community ruling. For an initial evaluation, the patterns are exemplified in the university domain.

KW - 2025 OA procedure

KW - policies

KW - UFO-L

KW - ontology of organizations

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85211340789&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85211340789

SN - 978-3-031-77907-7

T3 - Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

SP - 279

EP - 294

BT - The Practice of Enterprise Modeling

A2 - Paja, Elda

A2 - Zdravkovic, Jelena

A2 - Kavakli, Evangelia

A2 - Stirna, Janis

PB - Springer

CY - Cham, Switzerland

T2 - 17th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modeling Forum, PoEM 2024

Y2 - 3 December 2024 through 5 December 2024

ER -

Weigand H, Johannesson P, Guizzardi G. The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies. In Paja E, Zdravkovic J, Kavakli E, Stirna J, editors, The Practice of Enterprise Modeling: 17th IFIP Working Conference, PoEM 2024, Stockholm, Sweden, December 3-5, 2024. Proceedings. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. 2025. p. 279-294. (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-77908-4_17

The Dual Nature of Organizational Policies

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Embargoed Document

Fingerprint

A Teleological Approach to Information Systems Design

Automated Semantic Annotation Pipeline for Brazilian Judicial Decisions

Cite this