This article draws upon the literature on academic culture and the academic profession to provide a context for beliefs about post-tenure review. Schein's (1992) theory of organizational culture and Kuh & Whitt's (1988) application of cultural theory to higher education settings divides culture into a conceptual hierarchy comprised of three levels--artifacts, values and beliefs, and basic assumptions. This study focused on the middle layer of Schein's three levels of culture--values and beliefs. Values are "widely held sentiments about the importance of certain goals, activities, relations and feelings" (Kuh & Whitt, 1988, p. 23). Common understandings between people about what is right or wrong, or what ought to be, are examples of values. This study investigated beliefs held by faculty and administrators that influenced the first-year implementation of post-tenure review and the factors that influenced those beliefs. The goal of this study was to identify patterns of beliefs and their influences across four campuses within one state system. The term "implementation" is intentionally broad to include the decisions made by faculty, department chairs, personnel committees, and deans to execute a new post-tenure review policy as well as voiced opinions and behaviors of the same group, which influenced implementation.