ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the functionally embodied culture framework. The theory of embodied cognition suggests cognition is dynamically embedded and interdependent with the physical, material, social and cultural environment. If this is the case then environments associated with professional work and learning must also be capable of shaping professional and managerial cognition. Professionalization and strategic task are necessary for schema induction, but may not be sufficient to manifest a distinct organizational culture. When professionals use metaphors drawn from their own occupational domains to conceptualize about other domains, this is evidence not only of occupationally induced schemas, but also of progressive alignment in action. The literature on expertise and knowledge acquisition and generation, and more generally on occupational systems of meaning, suggests these experiences are productive ones for schema grounding. Through apprenticeship, professionals learn to interact with the tools of their trade, acquiring both a professional disposition and learning the profession’s constraints.
