Communication as Enabler of Virtual Team Collaboration: Properties and Best Practices

Communication is the meta-level enabler of virtual team collaboration. It requires an in-depth, structured understanding of what communication is, how it works, and how it makes people feel. To achieve higher awareness, this chapter first summarizes communicative properties, elements and purposes. It proposes the sender-receiver model and the three metaphors of iceberg, glasses and backpack for communicative improvement. Differentiating between communicative content and context, it enables you to reframe and integrate the four sides of communication. Finally, this chapter presents five principles of communication and guides you towards establishing a psychologically safe communicative team climate and successful virtual communicative practices.