Samarco and the Fundão dam rupture: when strategizing loses its operational track and becomes a discursive exercise of sensegiving

Abstract This study analyzes how the sensegiving process present in the narrative of Samarco as a strategic practice regarding the rupture in the Fundão dam. This is a qualitative research based on secondary data that included 307 files (893 pages) from the Samarco website, 297 files (647 pages) from the Fundação Renova website and 52 videos (191 minutes) from the Youtube channel Samarco Mineração. At first, a content analysis was performed to observe the content directives provided by the company since the dam rupture. From the analysis were inferred six narrative moments. Ever since the dam incident, the company showed a discursive strategy grounded on presenting a sensegiving process concerning the return of its operations.