Must the Shit Hit the Fan Before Anyone Responds? Response‐Activating Texts as Catalysts for Organisational Responsiveness

The article examines how ‘soft’ information functions in rational organisations that emphasise hard information, and how this affects safety. Drawing on fieldwork in a high‐security prison, we analyse how frontline personnel interpret soft information about potential disturbances. We identify three coexisting institutional logics shaping these interpretations: precaution, laissez‐faire and legality. Based on these logics, we find a tension between anticipation and verification in organisational responses, where verification tends to dominate. Verified information drives formal response and information must typically conform to the format of an incident report to be considered valid by decision‐makers. As a result, incidents often need to materialise before formal action is taken. We introduce the concept of ‘response‐activating text’ to describe documents that trigger organisational action. The study highlights how historically rooted legal norms shape the handling of soft information, raising the question of whether the dominance of legal logic may come at the expense of safety.