Research on how public service management copes in difficult times is needed. This paper theorizes how collective action frames are created to nurture new practices in challenging contexts. The case concerns an Irish local authority, the 2008 financial crash and subsequent severe austerity. We draw on institutional work to make sense of collective action created for reform, actors’ reflexivity of their situated logics, and institutional embeddedness. This paper contributes by: (1) adding to knowledge of how public service management reform is implemented in difficult times, and (2) combining institutional work with framing concepts to understand how such reform processes unfold.