ABSTRACT
Globally distributed organizations often bring people of different cultures and languages across heterogeneous locations together to collaborate on specific projects. Virtual teams are groups of geographically and/or organizationally distributed participants who collaborate towards a shared goal using a combination of information and communication technologies to accomplish a task. This chapter investigates the communication practices of international virtual teams organized within a hybrid work arrangement. It proposes the concepts shared meaning and translucence, and demonstrates their usefulness for analysing and theorizing about collaboration within virtual teams. The chapter explains how the concepts are important when investigating the collaborative practice and for designing collaborative technologies to be used in virtual teams. It presents case study of two virtual teams engaged in hybrid work arrangements. An essential feature of virtual teamwork is communicative action or the ability to successfully negotiate and communicate with each other.
