Suzhi expectations for double-shouldered academics in Chinese public universities: An exploratory case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore suzhi requirements and expectations to double-shouldered academics as middle-level cadres (双肩挑处级干部) in a Chinese higher education institute (HEI) as an initial step to examine the interplays between suzhi requirement and expectations and organizational operational mechanism in the Chinese context. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted an exploratory single-case approach for the study. In this study, 22 participants composed of middle-level cadres, other stakeholders at the university, college/department and business unit levels were interviewed. Findings – Suzhi requirements for the cadres followed the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) guideline, the required de, neng, qin, ji and lian (德, 能, 勤, 绩, 廉) was abstract and vague. With the parallel systems, the CPC and administrative lines, there were discrepancies between the CPC required suzhi and those expected by the stakeholders. A social phenomenon, “official rank-oriented standard” (ORS, guan ben...