Modelling the human components of complex systems

Complex systems are specified, designed, built and tested by humans, all of whom are immersed in a cultural environment that colours their emotions, cognition, decisions and behaviours. This paper presents a brief overview of culture, its sources, its measurement and its effects on the performance of complex systems. This paper also describes a series of culture and personality modelling tools that the authors have developed for the purpose of assessing the match of individuals and teams to missions or tasks, based on their cultural backgrounds and/or personality traits.