But this in fact not perfect…

“Identity” in English also refers to the functions and/or characteristics of something. It’s possibly one of the trickiest words in general usage. No Chinese equivalent…

FYI, identity in psychology usage also refers to a set of (shared) values/beliefs of an individual or group.

Here I suspect it may as well mean something like “明确的组织/集体意识” but that’s way too Chinese (esp. mainland).

Policy documents are always very fussy.... Cheers


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Note added at 20 mins (2006-02-07 18:00:09 GMT)
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...fuzzy!

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Note added at 1 day19 hrs (2006-02-09 12:56:51 GMT) Post-grading
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If the context really says the school heads' appointments will create a clearer identity among the teaching staff, I think I will stay put with "[教职员的]明确功能身份".

If it instead refers to the whole shcool's "办学情况", then “校风/学风”would be a better choice (instantly makes sense in Chinese)... However, it would strongly suggest that hiterto the “校风/学风”were no good or not good enough. Also "明确" will not match well with "校风/学风" (which is supposedly good by default. e.g. 良好的校风)

(True, my suggested term has this same problem)... Cheers