ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contrary evidence of culture shaping to pressure-test the functionally embodied framework, reviewing three cases where culture shaping appears to be a function of leadership agency. It reviews how approaches such as the one at IMCO are undermined by the functional grounding thesis. The chapter offers a discussion about leadership’s role in culture change, and provides a short overview of intervention alternatives consistent with the theory and evidence. Culture shaping in new economy companies is not only made possible by schema thematicity, but also by firm size. The functionally embodied perspective posits that cultural schemas underpin everything takeen as ‘culture’ in organizations. Tacitly held schemas and their affordances simultaneously obscure and backlight cultural patterns. Schemas and affordances are selectively leveraged and implemented that align with and sustain strategy. For practitioners and managers, one practical approach involves the use of leadership groups.
