Work teams are often tasked with handling multiple interdependent activities to achieve team goals despite limited resources. Team members must cooperate and coordinate their efforts to perform effectively yet compete for the limited resources to strive for better performance, which generates a necessity to balance cooperation and competition in resource allocation. We developed a simulation model using agent-based modeling (ABM) grounded in NK landscape logic to examine how resource allocation orientations impact team problem-solving performance across different resource availability levels. Our results suggested that under resource scarcity, an aggressively competitive structure—allocating resources solely to top performers—is most effective. Under resource abundance, a cooperative structure—distributing resources more broadly and evenly—yields superior performance. Under moderately resourced environments, a constructively competitive approach—prioritizing high performers— proves optimal. Also, the performance impacts of prioritizing high performers are closely tied to resource availability. As task interdependence increases, resource allocation structures exhibit consistent performance patterns. However, aggressively competitive structures lose their advantage under resource scarcity more quickly, while cooperative structures become less dependent on resource availability.
