American vs German Teams: The Case of Human Resources Consumption

Nuno Trindade Magessi, Luis Antunes

Abstract: Teams are compulsive consumers of human resources from companies. This type of resources has associated the spending of money. There are two distinct types of teams: American and German. These two highly distinct models have specific characteristics that shape their patterns and dynamics. One characteristic that has been understudied in the literature is the resources consumption. To understand this issue, a multi-agent based model was developed to analyse each type of teams according to specific and critical aspects. After several simulations, it could be observed that German teams despite their focus on efficiency, were more compulsive consumers of human resources than American ones. The article also looks at hybrid teams where companies have a mix of both models. These teams tended to display more similarities with the German rather than the American model.