When Institutional Maintenance Fails: Situational Logics in the UK Fire Service

Although much is known about the types of actions that can create, sustain, and undermine institutions, less is known about the contextual conditions under which different acts of institutional maintenance succeed or fail. We theorize these conditions as 'situational logics'. Situational logics alter in relation to shifting levels of interdependence of institutional actors and changes in the favorability of prevailing contexts for actors' vested interests. As outcomes, situational logics are influenced by multi-level events, including previous actions of institutional actors, and as antecedents they provide contexts for subsequent action. Using the case of the UK Fire Service, we identify four situational logics—protection, compromise, elimination, and opportunism—as well as corresponding acts of institutional maintenance—defensive, concessionary, competitive, and expedient. We find that acts of institutional maintenance are more effective when they correspond with prevailing situational logics. This allows us to show how acts of institutional maintenance that can be effective at one point in time can be ineffective or even detrimental at another. Our research contributes to understanding the multi-level influences on institutional maintenance and change, emphasizing the timing and context of institutional action within a processual framework.