The Commisceo Global Blog - Perfect for Culture Vultures

Christianity is the largest world religion at the moment.

It has over 2 billion followers, who classify themselves under 34,000 different denominations.

Initially, Christianity was derived from Judaism, as Jesus Christ was a Jew, as were his twelve disciples. Christianity is based mainly around the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and is monotheistic.

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Buddhism, in its natural form, is not a religion; rather it is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development.

Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and do not worship gods or deities.

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The Bahai faith is the youngest independent religion of the word, which was founded in the mid 19th century by Mirza Husayn Ali (1817-1892), son of a government minister in Tehran (Iran). Mirza Husayn Ali is known to the world as ‘Baha Ullah’ and regarded by Bahais as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God.

Origin and History of Bahai

The Bahai religion originally grew out of the Babism faith, which was founded in 1844 by Mirza Ali Mohammad of Shiraz (Iran) who proclaimed a spiritual doctrine emphasising the forthcoming appearance of a new messenger of God who would overturn old beliefs and customs. Mirza Husayn Ali claimed to be this new messenger of the era and was renowned Baha Ullah meaning ‘glory to God’.

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For those of you who follow our social media accounts, you would have come across our 15 predictions about business & corporate training for 2015. For those that missed them - this is for you!

Understanding a country's past helps you understand its present. Kathinka gives her viewpoint on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; a physical and symbolic wall that shaped the Cold War and today still influences German culture.

As part of the 2014 Export Week, Commisceo trainer Joyce Jenkins was invited to speak at UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Women in Export event.

Would you drink fermented mare’s milk with your new potential Mongolian business partners to seal a deal? Or would you politely decline? The answer may come down to the strength of your stomach or your awareness of local etiquette.

Working with people from different cultures is becoming increasingly more common; however it can also give rise to challenges. Thankfully, Erin Meyer has recently published a book that provides a framework on how different cultures across the globe view communication at work.

What can movie trailers teach us about cultural differences in advertising and marketing? A lot argues interculturalist, Désirée Gergen, in her blog for the Culture Vulture.

Whether we know it or not, culture impacts almost everything we do. Within business, one should always be aware of cultural differences. Yes, even within interior design!

When thinking about cultural differences, interior design might not be the first area of business that comes to mind.

However, in a great article on Prime Resi, Joe Burns explains that luxury homes will only meet the client’s wishes if the designer knows the ins and outs of their culture.

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Being surrounded by other cultures can bring a great deal of benefits: new research has shown that living in a culturally diverse community can even make you smarter!

Global Training Manager, Caroline, gives some insight into an upcoming train-the-trainer course for business professionals looking to become cultural awareness trainers and coaches.

Russians have a reputation for being loud and rowdy tourists when they travel abroad. However, this might soon be a thing of the past as an Italian hotel owner has created an etiquette guide for Russians who are visiting Italy this summer to try and temper their 'uncouth' ways.

If you work cross-culturally, whether abroad or at home, chances are you have found yourself in a situation whereby you find yourself a little lost with the way people work and/or behave. Sometimes, this comes down to culture - i.e. differences in values and how this translates into the way someone carries themselves at work.

On our blog we love to look at different takes on cultural differences. Understanding culture and how it impacts your business isnt just about dos and dont's. It is SO much more and this little piece on culture and security highlights nicely how culture impacts pretty much everything we do from handshakes to security fences.

Recently, expert on global leadership, Erin Meyer, published a new book that aims to help managers lead global teams. By using an eight-scale framework, team leaders can guide their teams to a more effective method of working.

It was all over the news, on the radio, on TV all day, finally…. the World Cup has started! Football is an excellent example demonstrating how culture impacts life and business. For instance, it shows how diversity is a value-add and what a foreigner can bring to another cultural environment.

According to new research, the cultural divide between the West and the East can be explained by the type of farming methods used between the regions. As rice requires more human labour, researchers say it’s no wonder that people in the East are more interdependent.

In 2001, the UN General Assembly declared May 21st to the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development due to UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in the same year. This day is dedicated to enhance our understanding of values of cultural divergence and raise awareness for cultural differences for a better collaboration around the world.

Recent studies on facial expressions have destroyed any suggestions that facial expressions convey the same emotions or meanings all over the world.