With increasing prevalence of global virtual teams (GVTs), GVTs effectiveness draws much attention from both academia and industries. Communication is widely acknowledged as a significant element to improve GVTs effectiveness and the source of many problems in GVTs, but there is no systematic model about it. In this paper, a conceptual model is proposed to direct communication management in CVTs. In this model, team characteristics are considered as independent variables, including degree of virtuality and degree of diversity. In addition, many factors influencing GVTs communication from existing literatures can be classified into three types of crucial success factors (CSFs): Communication Technology, Team Learning and Team Leadership. In this study, communication is divided into two styles: task communication and social communication, which could be affected by team characteristics and CSFs simultaneously. In sum, this study aims at extending our understanding on GVTs communication management and provides practical advice to improve communication effectiveness though the study of influencial factors.
