You're actually very much right, in this case, if we choose z to be the preferential element (say, the largest, such that x->y iff x≤y), the addition operation would be the same as 'adding' elements/orderings to the poset in question; this operation does, in fact, form a lattice.
EDIT: I'd like to say this algebra is more general since in the lattice sense, any undirected graph is just equivalent to a poset in which all of the elements are equal (e.g. since x->y+y->x ≅ {x}, where x=y), but there's obviously more interesting structure than that within the graph. In general, there's only truly interesting structure within the graph when the graph has a topological sort (anything else gives elements which are equal under the partial order).