Improving cooperative management : fuzzy modeling and proximity networks

The Internet, and perhaps of more relevance to this work, large enterprise networks are complex ICT systems of prime business importance. The effectiveness of management of any complex system is heavily dependent on understanding the functions of its components and their interactions with one another. As such, quantifying collaboration and awareness levels can play significant roles in improving the management efficiency. In most cases though, it is impossible to identify precise crisp models describing the roles, functions, and interactions of such components in a useful manner. This can in turn be related to the fact that the characterization of these concepts by human beings and managers is heavily based on the use of linguistic variables. These variables and the communication of perceptions based on them are fuzzy concepts in nature. This paper further elaborates these issues. To identify solutions, it discusses the relevant notions of soft computing and explores the ways that the utilization of fuzzy awareness modelling can help in improving cooperative management effectiveness.