Evidence of decoupling in business sustainability: A case study in the colombian mining sector

Abstract

The phenomenon known as decoupling implies a disconnection between discourse and organizational action; incoherence between saying and doing. This paper aims at illustrating the decoupling associated with corporate sustainability through a particular case study. For this, an environmental incident caused by a multinational company belonging to the large-scale coal mining sector in Colombia is addressed. Besides highlighting the theoretical relevance of a little-applied concept in the context of developing countries, this study contributes to the identification of decoupling as a phenomenon that allows understanding situations of dissociation between policies and actions within the business field. In this sense, the case study also allows to understand decoupling as a controversial organizational practice, identifying application scenarios with different levels of premeditation. Additionally, from a practical perspective, and considering its normative approach, this research emphasizes that decoupling is a counterproductive behavior for the sustainability goals of companies and society as a whole.