Organizational and functional dilemmas in large public research centers: The Spanish National Research Council CSIC

Abstract

What factors affect the organizational models of the large national public research centers? How does organizational change affect the nature of the scientific activities they perform? This article uses the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) to illustrate an institutional change process taking into account the tension that exists between the public status of research centers and the high level of independence of its scientific communities. The main purpose is to explain how changes in the CSIC’s internal power structure, along with the relationships with external funding and evaluation agencies, cause those research practices considered most legitimate to emerge and produce a reorientation of the entire organization. To that end, a historical account of the CSIC’s situation in the period between the Spanish Democratic Transition and the beginning of the 21st century is provided. The theoretical basis is defined by concepts from new institutionalism in organizational sociology. The results show that during the last quarter of the 20th century, the CSIC has become an organization oriented to basic science. The conclusions have implications for future studies on the transformation of public research centers and for science policy in this field.