ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on integration of embodied cognition and sensemaking on instances of sensemaking that occur between leaders and followers. It examines sensemaking from an embodied cognition perspective affords insight into how organization members utilize multiple modalities within their physical environment to arrive upon meaning. The chapter discusses leadership in a general sense, a specific subset of occupations could benefit from the investigation of embodied cognition as it relates to sensemaking. More explicitly incorporating embodied processes into authentic leadership research could further elucidate the effectiveness of authentic leaders. The chapter reviews the results of several experiments demonstrating that embodied states occupy central roles in cognition and affect. Embodied cognitive approaches view the representation of knowledge as dependent on brain structures involved in perception, action, and introspection rather than based on abstract semantic networks. Embodied cognition also provides a contribution in this regard by explaining the manner in which action and cognition are indelibly tied together.
