Introduction   * Globalization has changed the way organizations carry out their projects.   * Many organizational projects cover geographically diverse regions and involve people from different regions (Ortig & Buergi, 2006).   * To reduce costs as well as to take advantage of advanced technology, organizations have resorted to virtual teams to undertake projects.   * Virtual teams’ members may be located in different cities, countries and/or continents (Dalton, Ernst, Leslie & Deal, 2002).   * Managing a virtual team is a difficult task for project managers.   * Besides the lack of the human element (Hinds & Bailey, 2003), project managers as well as the team members have to deal with language barriers, differences in time zones, differences in culture and poor cooperation among other challenges.   * The purpose of this presentation is to propose ways in which a virtual team consisting of Indian and Japanese employees can be motivated. The main focus will be on improving communication between these two groups of workers. An Overview of Indian Culture   * In a nut shell, the Indian culture differs significantly from the Western culture.   * Indians have a strong feelings towards loyalty and prefer to develop long-term relationships rather than a short-term relationship (Sinha & Sinha, 1994; Bobby & Yohannan, 1992).   * The Indian society is thus a collectivist society with strong bonds between family and caste members as well as close friends (Gopalan & Dixon, 1996).   * Indians also value their spirituality and place less importance on material wealth. People work to satisfy their own and their families’ basic needs. An Overview of Japanese Culture   * The Japanese culture is a high-context culture. One of the characteristics of a high-context culture is indirect and implicit communication, rather than direct and explicit. Japanese therefore approach conflicts in a discreet and subtle manner (Qingxue, 2003).   * Like their Indian counterparts, the Japanese society is also a collectivist society (Qingxue, 2003). The Japanese therefore place emphasis on the opinions, needs and goals of the family and community members rather than of oneself.   * Hierarchy is also important in the Japanese culture. Thus, people are aware of their duties and commitments to those who are older than them (Qingxue, 2003). Ethical considerations When dealing with cross-cultural communication, various ethical issues arise. One ethical issue is the tendency of people to think of their culture as superior to the culture of other people. This is referred to as ethnocentricism (Ess, 2009). With regard to Japanese and Indians, although these two cultures share some similarities, they also differ in some aspects such as language and accent. It is therefore natural for a Japanese to criticize an Indian’s accent and vice versa. Ess (2009) in recognition of these ethical issues argues that in order to become complete and content individuals, there is need for a range of virtues. He further argues that “these virtues are especially important if we are to move away from communication that focuses solely on our shared commonalities and identities to communication that enables us to develop deeper understandin