Institutional Logics and Academic Work in China: Career Structures, Governance Mechanisms, and Researcher Responses

Abstract This paper examines how national higher education priorities are translated into the everyday experiences of Chinese academics. Drawing primarily on 23 semi-structured interviews with academics from different types of Chinese universities, and supplemented by other documents, it develops a layered filtering model to explain how policy signals are transformed across national, organizational, and individual levels. The findings show that state priorities are translated by universities into performance-based governance mechanisms centered on quantitative evaluation, contractual employment arrangements, and career thresholds. These pressures are further reinforced by labor market imbalance, institutional stratification, and intense competition for academic resources. In response, academics adopt strategies of compliance, mobility, and career reorientation. However, these adaptations often result in emotional exhaustion, identity strain, and work–family tensions. The study argues that state priorities are not transmitted linearly but are selectively filtered and recombined through organizational interests and individual concerns, producing a metricized form of performance pressure that differs from the original policy intentions.