| The lack of awareness of cross-cultural characteristics of individuals has a potentially negative impact on cross-cultural virtual team efficiency, effectiveness, and coherence. Since many organizations lack the tools to train and educate employees to deal with cross-cultural issues, the results of this study could help organizations improve virtual team performance. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the effective characteristics that contributed to the success of cross-cultural virtual teams.; Specifically, the research questions addressed the following: what are the effective characteristics of team behaviors, what are the perceived personality traits that help individuals manage cross-cultural differences, and how do teammates resolve cultural differences to make virtual teams achieve high levels of effectiveness and coherence. The researcher conducted 13 open-ended interviews with individuals who were experienced in cross-cultural virtual teamwork. NVivo 2.0 software was used to analyze the data.; Based on the research, three themes emerged related to virtual team intelligence. In the first theme, virtual functional competency, the critical functional characteristics were communication competency, understanding of cultural and individual differences, a common platform, shared goal, vision, and active listening. The second theme, virtual relationship-building competency, identified the following positive personal traits: responsiveness, friendliness, sensitivity, empathy, professionalism, intuition, caring, patience, and motivation. For the third theme, virtual strategy-building competency, the use of annual conferences or trade shows to encourage cross-cultural virtual teammates to meet in person brings the business partnership to the next level of performance. Telephone calls were another tool to enhance virtual relationship building and decision making.; International organizations can use the results of this study as guidelines for developing training and hiring strategies to bridge the gap between theory and reality. Making virtual teams effective can have a positive social impact by increasing cross-cultural awareness in the virtual working environment to facilitate cultural and business globalization. |
