ABSTRACT
This chapter provides case study of a Chinese research university to understand how the changes/reforms of academic promotion policy in an institution affect academic identity. It examines the historical path of the academic promotion system and recent reforms of academic promotion policies in the case. The chapter analyses what institutional logics aligned with the traditional academic promotion system and what new logics were introduced by the reforms in the case. It discusses how the mingling of institutional logics influences academic identities. The primary motivations for developing the institutional logics approach are to use institutional logics to concretely define the content and meaning of institutions and to better explain how institutions both enable and constrain action by incorporating macro structure, local culture, and human agency. The governance and management reforms in higher education are intended to change academic work or the behaviours of academics by disrupting the equilibrium of the existing institutional environment where the actors are embedded.
