From Ritual to Reality: Demography, Ideology, and Decoupling in a Post-Communist Government Agency

Abstract

Decoupling—the creation of gaps between formal policies and actual practices—is ubiquitous in organizations. Yet little research has examined how decoupling unfolds over time. This qualitative case study of a post-Communist government agency develops process models of what precedes and what follows the decision to decouple. I show that the demography and ideology of powerful organization members influence whether decoupling occurs, how it unfolds, and whether it is sustainable. Further, I suggest decoupling may carry seeds of its own decay: under certain conditions, the decision to decouple can trigger demographic changes that eventually erode decoupling.