Managing Ontological Ambiguity

This Information Systems research investigates Ontological Ambiguity as a specific problem in the management of ontologies. Ontologies are a class of software artifacts that seek to capture the basic essence of an organization’s structure and dynamics, identify the relevant objects and actors and describe their relationships. They then can be executed functionally through software applications. In this context, ontologies are considered strategic information assets and their management now becomes a critical managerial activity. At present, however, most organizations are not aware that they have a significant number of ontologies that are ambiguous. This research plans looks at defining the notion of Ontological Ambiguity as well as using mixed methods to investigate the nature of ambiguous ontologies. The overall objective is to support investigation into causes and the consequences of the presence of ambiguous ontologies in organizations in the context of the knowledge management framework of new knowledge creation.