Abstract: As tasks in primary-level governance continue to get intense, primary-level governments often face numerous target tasks, assessment requirements, and pressure from accountability. Driven by the need to accomplish these tasks, some organizations frequently expand their non-regular personnel to alleviate governance pressure. However, through observations ofa comprehensive multi-sport project team of the Communist Youth League Committee of District A, City C, it is found that elements such as the composition of members’ identities, task contexts and attributes, differentiated perceptions of identity, and behavioral expectations within the structure of primary-level task-based organizations bear a significant impact on task achievement in such organizations. During the concrete operation of the organization, staff members with different identities often employ a mix of strategies such as “burden reduction”, “blame avoidance” and “credit claiming”, selectively screening, re-contracting and evading tasks. This often results in tasks being performed in vain or even in what may be termed a “task reflux”. In such circumstances, “leaders taking ultimate responsibility” becomes a key mechanism for ensuring that organizational tasks are implemented. The findings of this study help to optimize the operating mechanisms of task-based organizations and provide policy insights for improving the grassroots accountability system.

Key words: primary-level governance, task-based organizations, identity differences, task reflux