Per BFO, roles inhere in continuants and are realized by processes.

However, we often need to connect a continuant that is the bearer of a role to the organization, government, etc. that confers the role.

For example, how does one relate an employee to her employer organization?

First, we note that BFO2 currently posits that no relational roles exist, so employer/employee are not connected by jointly bearing a single role:

"Hypothesis: There are no relational roles. In other words, each role is the role of exactly one bearer."

Option #1: The connection is through participation in a role-conferring process

One possibility is that both the bestower of the role, and the recipient of the role participate in a process whereby the role is conferred to the recipient, and after which the recipient is the bearer of the role:

Consider the following particulars:

o1: organization #1

p1: person #1

r1: p1's role as employee of o1

h1: hiring process of p1 by o1

Then, we say that:

o1 'is participant of' h1 (note, it's really certain other employees of o1 that participate)

p1 'is participant of' h1

r1 'begins to exist during' h1

The key issue is that not all roles are conferred by such processes.

Definition of SLGDC - Socio-legal generically dependent continuants are generically dependent continuants that come into existence through declarations and are concretized as roles.

Definition of 'declaration' - A social act that brings about, transfers or revokes a socio-legal generically dependent continuant. Declarations do not depend on words spoken or written, but sometimes are merely actions, for instance the signing of a document.

Class restriction of 'declaration' - (('legally revokes' some 'socio-legal generically dependent continuant') or ('legally transfers' some 'socio-legal generically dependent continuant') or (has_specified_output some 'socio-legal generically dependent continuant')) and (realizes some 'declaration performer role') and (has_agent some (('Homo sapiens' or organization or 'collection of humans' or 'aggregate of organizations') and (bearer_of some 'declaration performer role')))

The gist - Some roles are concretizations of SLGDCs. An SLGDC is created by a declaration that involves some agent (the bearer of a declaration performer role) and a declaration target (the bearer of the role that concretizes the SLGDC).

An employee role is a concretization of a SLGDC. An employee is the bearer of a role that concretizes an SLGDC that is the specified output of a declaration that had the employer as agent.

SLGDCs can be distinguished according according to a couple criteria: the type of entity that is the agent (e.g., Human or organization) and the type of entity that is the declaration target (e.g., human or organization). Roles that concretize SLGDCs can be distinguished in the same way.

In the case of employee/employer scenarios, the declaration target (or the bearer of the employee role that concretizes an SLGCD) is a human and the agent is an organization.

With this in mind I suggest that we have the following hierarchy in OMRSE:

  • 'role in human social processes'
    • 'organism social role'
      • 'human social role'
        • 'socio-legal human social role' (is_concretization_of some ('socio-legal generically dependent continuant'))
          • 'human role within an organization' (is_concretization_of some ('socio-legal generically dependent continuant' and is_specified_output_of some (declaration and has_agent some (organization or 'aggregate of organizations')))
            • 'student role'
            • 'employee role'