Team communication in the workplace

Abstract

In today’s organizations, team and group communication is an essential part of work, and it is loaded with expectations. Despite the expectation that teamwork offers an answer to the intense demands of today’s dynamic, ubiquitously digital working life, taking advantage of its benefits is neither simple nor well understood. Teams represent various types of collaboration. Teams can be understood by observing their structures, practices, and processes as well as their functionality and goal achievement. This chapter provides an understanding of the multifaceted reality of groups and teams as it manifests in interaction. The chapter analyzes a variety of team phenomena in order to enhance and develop team performance in the workplace. Although teams can have a designated leader or coordinator, team members can also share leadership. Teams can execute long-lasting, permanent tasks, but they can also be formed for short periods to perform explicit, nonrecurring tasks. The chapter also outlines the practical implications of the communication factors that contribute to team performance and goal achievement in the context of constantly changing working life and the manifold requirements of successful teams.