Sociomateriality Implications of Multi-Agent Supported Collaborative Work Systems

Recent technological advancements significantly redefined the context in which organizations acquire, process, and share information. The transformations that emerged across the organizational and institutional landscapes have led to the emergence of new forms of organizational design and business models. Within this context, the new business patterns, platforms and architectures have been developed to enable for the maximization of benefits from data through the adoption of collaborative work practices. The main focus of such practices is oriented towards the improvement of responsiveness, building of alliances and enhancing organizational reach. The use of global networks and web based systems for the implementation of collaborative work has been accompanied with a wide range of computer supported collaborative systems. This paper examines the context of collaboration, collaborative work and the development of agent-supported collaborative work system and examines the implications of the ontological positions of sociomateriality on agent-supported collaborative work domains in terms of multi-agent architecture and agent-oriented evaluation.