A communication method for collective operations is provided which eliminates the need for a three layered structure. Instead, the method of the present invention employs a control structure which is specifically designed to keep track of the progress of the collective communication operations and the facilities for the handling of asynchronous message passing. The method of the present invention thus eliminates the need for an intermediary, point-to-point communication layer that is required to follow message matching semantics for sending messages, receiving messages and for awaiting message arrivals. Application layer tasks and user defined programs running in the communication layer share access to the control structure as a mechanism for synchronizing and scheduling the progress of the collective communication operation.