RESEARCH ARTICLE

The management of scientific and technological
infrastructures: The case of the Mexican
National Laboratories

开放访问

杂志

1Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CRIP, DRPD, México
2Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, IIMAS, DMMSS, México

Leonardo Munguía1

, Eduardo Robles-Belmont2

, and Juan Carlos Escalante2

引文: Munguía, L。, Robles-Belmont,
E., & Escalante, J. C. (2023). 这
management of scientific and
technological infrastructures: 案子
of the Mexican National Laboratories.
Quantitative Science Studies, 4(1),
246–261. https://doi.org/10.1162
/qss_a_00230

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00230

Peer Review:
https://www.webofscience.com/api
/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1162
/qss_a_00230

已收到: 10 二月 2022
公认: 24 十一月 2022

通讯作者:
Leonardo Munguía
leonardoo.munguia@politicas
.unam.mx

处理编辑器:
Gabriel Velez Cuartas

版权: © 2023 Leonardo Munguía,
Eduardo Robles-Belmont, and Juan
Carlos Escalante. Published under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
国际的 (抄送 4.0) 执照.

麻省理工学院出版社

关键词: 效力, 评估, 管理, national laboratories, scientific and technological
基础设施

抽象的

The effectiveness of research units is assessed on the basis of their performance in relation to
scientific, 技术性的, and innovation production, the quality of their results, 和他们的
contribution to the solution of scientific and social problems. We examine the management
practices employed in some Mexican National Laboratories to identify those practices that
could explain their effectiveness in meeting their objectives. The results of other research that
propose common elements among laboratories with outstanding performance are used and
verified directly in the field. Considering the inherent complexity of each field of knowledge
and the sociospatial characteristics in which the laboratories operate, we report which
management practices are relevant for their effectiveness, how they contribute to their
consolidation as fundamental scientific and technological infrastructures, and how these can
be translated into indicators that support the evaluation of their performance.

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介绍

Mexican National Laboratories are fundamental scientific and technological infrastructures for
research and technological development for the state in areas of priority. Their distinctive char-
acteristics are that they are financed by the government, have highly specialized research
equipment, and provide quality services to the academic, governmental, 社会的, and industrial
部门. They were established in 2006 as a result of a call published by the National Council
of Science and Technology (Conacyt) with the objective of establishing and consolidating
National Laboratories. The call is generally published annually, and the Council currently sup-
端口 90 laboratories.

The incipient development of the laboratories has not allowed us to evaluate their perfor-
曼斯. 同样地, specific actions followed by management within the Mexican National Lab-
oratories are not sufficiently known, thus wasting valuable experience that could be used to
establish general management guidelines and indicators to evaluate and improve their
效力.

In this paper we review the management practices of the laboratories to answer the ques-
tion of which management practices are used in the Mexican National Laboratories to ensure
the performance of their activities and the fulfillment of their objectives.

The management of scientific and technological infrastructures

To study these practices, we used the framework proposed by Jiménez, Escalante et al.
(2018), which identifies four elements that would explain the effectiveness of the National
Laboratories (Laboratory Experience, 网络, Work Team Expertise, and Leadership).
Questionnaires and interviews were given directly to some members of 10 Mexican National
Laboratories and the information collected was examined using confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA), multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), and social network analysis (SNA).

We found the following. The experience of the laboratories, although explained by the
length of time of operation and the capacity they have to obtain equipment and develop
cutting-edge high-quality scientific and technological production, is justified by the infrastruc-
真实, institutional support, and capacity to manage financed projects. The network of the lab-
oratories shows that their relationships with other actors are explained by their thematic
自然, which allows them more and better links. In the expertise of the work team, 虽然
the individual and collective achievements of the laboratory members are identified as central
元素, there is also a condition that transcends these: the link established between the lab-
oratory equipment and the development of the personnel themselves. 最后, the leadership
practices are recognized as fundamental, although in the field there is no characteristic type of
leadership but rather a combination of ways to lead people.

The structure of this paper is as follows: 部分 2 characterizes the Mexican National
Laboratories and their situation up to 2019; 部分 3 presents the analytical framework for
the study of the practices associated with their effectiveness and presents the laboratories stud-
ied; 部分 4 discusses the methodologies and techniques for analyzing the information, 这
collection of such information, its processing, and the results; 部分 5 discusses the results,
indicates their scope and limitations and proposes some general elements to be considered in
the management of laboratories that could be significantly important when developing indi-
cators to evaluate their effectiveness; 最后, we present the conclusions reached by this
exploratory exercise.

2. MEXICAN NATIONAL LABORATORIES AS SCIENTIFIC AND
TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURES

National Laboratories in Mexico are public scientific and technological infrastructures that
integrate human, 材料, 金融的, 技术性的, and scientific resources from universities,
research centers, and other higher education and research institutions, created to focus efforts
on developing and carrying out strategic research on topics defined in the government’s
议程, such as Environment, Knowledge of the Universe, Sustainable Development, Techno-
logical Development, Energy, 健康, 与社会 (Conacyt, 2013).

现在, 有 90 National Laboratories in operation, which are managed by presti-
gious working groups at universities, research centers, and institutes at the federal and state
levels in all thematic areas, predominantly in those referring to technological development,
健康, and knowledge of the universe, 如表所示 1.

In addition to these specific thematic centers, laboratory sites are concentrated in the
Centro-Bajío corridor to the center-west of Mexico City, 如图 1, while some
have facilities in more than one state; Michoacán, Estado de México, Morelos, Puebla, Ciudad
de México, Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, and Nuevo León; 那是, you will find
82.22% of the sites in nine states. The rest are distributed among 12 other states and there
是 11 states with no sites. The institutions with the most laboratories are the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados
del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Cinvestav), the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), 这

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The management of scientific and technological infrastructures

桌子 1. National Laboratories by research topic. 来源: Our own elaboration based on the
National Laboratories Register (Conacyt, 2020)

Research topic
Technological development

健康

Knowledge of the universe

环境

Sustainable development

Energy

社会

全部

Number of National Laboratories
37

Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT), and the Universidad
Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), which concentrate 53 的 90 laboratories; 那是,
58.8% of the total (Conacyt, 2020); the UNAM itself has 33.

这 90 laboratories are totally or partially financed by the Mexican government through
Conacyt, which since 2006 has generally published an annual call for complementary
economic support for the acquisition and maintenance of specialized equipment and adap-
tations of physical spaces, with the specific objective of creating new and consolidating
existing National Laboratories, which are conceived as “specialized units to reinforce infra-
structure and equipment for scientific development and innovation in fundamental areas, 在

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数字 1. Distribution of the National Laboratories home offices throughout the country. 来源: Our own elaboration based on the National
Laboratories Register (Conacyt, 2020).

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The management of scientific and technological infrastructures

order to optimize resources, generate synergies and offer constant and quality services”
(Conacyt, 2020).

To receive funding from Conacyt, National Laboratories are required to fulfill the following
four substantive functions: 研究, training for human resources, service provision, and link-
年龄. These activities increase the social benefits of investment in research and development,
expand the scientific and technological capabilities of national Science, 技术, 和
创新 (STI) institutions in all areas of knowledge, and offer an opportunity for laboratories
to develop within a framework of economic, 社会的, and environmental sustainability.

2.1. The Problem of Financing Scientific and Technological Infrastructures

后 15 years of governmental support, today the laboratories are at different stages of devel-
选项. All of them conduct or support research, human resources training, and service pro-
想象, and serve as strategic platforms for innovation in the academic, 工业的, 社会的, 和
governmental sectors at national and international levels.

然而, laboratories require continuous financial resources to carry out their research and
scientific and technological development projects, resources that are generally used to acquire
new equipment and ensure their operation, 维护, and updating.

Mexican National Laboratories rely mainly on public funds from Conacyt to cover their
demand for financial resources. Only a small proportion of their funding needs to come from
allocations from the universities, research centers, and institutes where they are located.

This situation of generalized dependence of the institutions, and specifically of the labora-
保守党, on government spending in the current context of investment in the Mexican sector,
which is characterized by a persistent and historical scarcity of economic resources, compro-
mises the development of the National Laboratories, as it affects the availability of the funding
they need.

The relationship between the availability of financial resources and the effectiveness of
research laboratories is mediated by the performance of the working group that, on a daily
基础, “uses many consumables (diverse products and reagents, glassware, animal or plant
材料, office material, computer programs, ETC。), some minor instruments (freezers, centri-
fuges, benchtop microscopes, 电脑, ETC。) 和, 最后, medium-weight instrumentation
purchased by one or more laboratories” (Louvel, 2007) to carry out scientific work and which
must be in optimal condition to successfully fulfill the laboratories’ objectives. 在这个意义上,
identifying the management practices of the National Laboratories would support the defini-
tion of good practice within the laboratories that serve to increase their effectiveness in the
fulfillment of their scientific and technological objectives and, 最终, decrease their
dependence on the governmental budget.

由于这些原因, we are interested in discovering the management actions taken by
working groups at Mexican National Laboratories. 为此, we will try to answer the
question of which management practices are used in Mexican National Laboratories to ensure
the performance of their activities and the fulfillment of their objectives.

We employ the framework proposed by Jiménez et al. (2018) to explain the “success” of
laboratories (IE。, their effectiveness in carrying out their activities and meeting their objec-
特维斯). To this end we will review the actions associated with this success in 10 的
laboratories. The framework and the methodological strategy followed for its operation are
described below.

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The management of scientific and technological infrastructures

3. REFERENCE FRAMEWORK AND EMPIRICAL STRATEGY

It is recognized that each National Laboratory, as a research unit, has its own scientific and
technological culture (Minhot & Torrano, 2009). This dissimilarity makes it difficult to identify
operational schemes that prove to be effective for all. 然而, despite their differences, 作为
scientific and technological infrastructures they respond to local-global pressures (普拉哈拉德 &
Doz, 1987) and face common challenges, such as their strengthening and moving into the
future with self-sufficiency.

To understand how the working groups articulate their actions in response to the demands
of their environment in the long term, we study the practices developed in the laboratories that
are associated with their effectiveness in meeting their objectives. 在这个意义上, the reference
framework proposed by Jiménez et al. (2018) is useful, as it is focused on the work of National
Laboratories in general, and specifically to Mexican laboratories. The authors indicate that
they have identified four elements common to successful laboratories, 即:

(西德:129) Laboratory experience. Laboratories with extensive experience are more likely to be

successful in their new role as National Laboratories.

(西德:129) 网络. Laboratories with extensive networks have an advantage in reinforcing already
established connections as opposed to laboratories that start from scratch in building a
strong network.

(西德:129) Team expertise. Those laboratories formed with expert teams conduct innovative research.
(西德:129) 领导. The leader must be an internationally recognized scientist and must not
only have the acceptance of the group, but also the will to work in collaboration with
其他的.

Laboratory experience refers to the capacity of laboratories to produce scientific facts which
involve having certain material and conditions that are the result of a “series of institutional
modifications aimed at the material, social and symbolic conformation of a space of scientific
production concretized in laboratories” (Arellano & Ortega, 2002). The working groups that
have set up laboratories in universities, research centers, and institutes should have institu-
tional support and commitment, as well as the capacity to obtain the material and economic
resources to equip, 维持, and operate the laboratories on an ongoing basis, usually via
funded research projects.

Laboratories form networks of actors that depend on the principle of preferential attach-
蒙特. “Preferential attachment is a rule that states that an entity becomes richer with the
growth of its network. A node with many existing connections is more likely to gain new con-
nections” (Honner, 2018). 在这个意义上, the existence of a collaborative network is critical for
the development of the laboratories because their effectiveness depends not only on the man-
agement and efficiency in each of its phases but also on linking with key actors during the
processes of scientific and technological development. These connections contribute to
increasing its recognition and competitiveness.

Laboratories are made up of researchers, 技术人员, and students with expertise who “are
committed to the line of research, patterns of activity organization, and certified production of
the group and the fields in which scientific activity is deployed” (Arellano & Ortega, 2002),
and who share “beliefs, 习惯, systematized knowledge, exemplary achievements, experi-
mental practices, oral traditions and craft skills” (拉图尔 & Woolgar, 1995).

Empirical evidence shows that “the leader in research units has a considerable influence on
the planning of research activities and on the integration between research strategies and

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The management of scientific and technological infrastructures

结构. These two roles have a major influence on the climate of the organization, which in
turn has a direct effect on research effectiveness” (Knorr-Cetina, Aichholzer, & Waller, 1979).
换句话说, the “leader is one of the most important influencing factors in the performance
of research units because of his contribution to the integration, atmosphere, quality of the
research program, and its external links” (Nagpaul, 1990). 为此原因, laboratories require
working groups and leaders that permit them to produce knowledge and technologies, 重现-
duce human capital, and provide quality services that allow them to obtain resources to
advance towards financial, 社会的, and environmental self-sufficiency.

According to the above, laboratories that have a priori a certain degree of development in
terms of infrastructure, project management capacity, institutional support, some collaboration
networks with key actors, availability of highly specialized human resources, and leaderships
that have proven a positive performance in relation to scientific and technological production
would have greater possibilities of contributing with knowledge and technologies to solving
the problems of science and those of national state priority within a framework of economic,
社会的, and environmental sustainability.

To investigate these elements, we examined the associated practices of 10 Mexican
National Laboratories using questionnaires and holding interviews with the researchers in
收费 (technical manager/leader) and their collaborators (technicians and students). 这些
instruments were designed based on a review of the literature on the aspects that are of interest
in this work, so that their results also offer validation of the theoretical construct from which
the National Laboratories are being studied.

Two semistructured interviews and two questionnaires were applied. For the interviews,
one was carried out with the technical manager and the other with two of his collaborators.
Four questions were asked in each one, to obtain the opinion of the technical manager and
his collaborators concerning the four aforementioned elements (laboratory experience,
工作组, networking, and style of leadership) and thus produce a clearer picture of
the laboratories’ practices, one that will show both the vision of the technical manager
and the perception of his collaborators. Ten scientists responsible and 20 collaborators
were interviewed (IE。, the technical manager (the scientist responsible)) for each of the
10 laboratories studied and two of their collaborators. Thirty individuals in total took part
in this exercise.

Regarding the questionnaires, one was given to the technical manager and the other to two
of his collaborators. Forty-one questions were posed and organized into four groups; each
group related to one of the elements proposed as common to “successful” laboratories. 这
answers given to the questions were closed and ordered on a Likert scale from 1 到 5, so as to
express the level of agreement/disagreement or frequency (always/never) according to the type
of information. 总共, a questionnaire was given to the same 10 scientists who were inter-
viewed and another questionnaire to the 20 collaborators already interviewed; 相同 30
individuals in total.

As mentioned above, 10 laboratories administered by the National Autonomous University

of Mexico (UNAM) and located in five different regions of Mexico were studied, 即

1. Laboratorio Nacional de Clima Espacial (National Laboratory for Space Weather,

LANCE). 话题: 环境.

2. Laboratorio Nacional de Innovación Ecotecnológica para la Sustentabilidad (国家的
Laboratory for Eco-technological Innovation in Sustainability, LANIES). 话题: Techno-
logical development.

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3. Laboratorio Nacional de Manufactura Aditiva, Digitalización 3D y Tomografía
Computarizada (National Laboratory for Additive Manufacture, 3D Digitalization
and Computerized Tomography, MADIT). 话题: Technological development.

4. Laboratorio Nacional de Resonancia Magnética e Imagenología (National Laboratory

for Magnetic Resonance and Imaging, LANIREM). 话题: 健康.

5. Laboratorio Nacional HAWC de Rayos Gamma (HAWC Gamma Rays National

Laboratory). 话题: Knowledge of the universe.

6. Laboratorio Nacional de Materiales Orales (National Laboratory for Oral Material,

LANMO). 话题: 社会.

7. Laboratorio Nacional de Ciencias de la Sostenibilidad (National Laboratory for

Sustainability Sciences, LANCIS). 话题: Sustainable development.

8. Laboratorio Nacional de Ciencias para la Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio
文化 (National Laboratory of Sciences for the Research and Conservation of the
Cultural Heritage, LANCIC). 话题: 社会.

9. Laboratorio Nacional en Salud: Diagnóstico Molecular y Efecto Ambiental en
Enfermedades Crónico-Degenerativas (National Laboratory for Health: Molecular
Diagnostics and Environmental Effect on Chronic-Degenerative Illnesses, LNS-FESI).
话题: 健康.

10. Laboratorio Nacional de Visualización Científica Avanzada (National Laboratory for
Advanced Scientific Visualization, LAVIS). 话题: Technological development.

It is worth mentioning that these laboratories were chosen because they are close to the
place where this research was carried out, as they are located within the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (UNAM) and in geographical areas not far from Mexico City. Care was
taken in the selection of these laboratories by identifying the 33 Mexican National Laborato-
ries that are managed at UNAM and choosing 10 of them randomly.

INFORMATION, ANALYSIS, AND RESULTS

The application of the questionnaires and interviews occurred between 2018 和 2019. 在
both cases field visits were made and the two instruments mentioned were given to the
working groups. The information collected with the interviews was examined using con-
tent analysis, and the information obtained with the questionnaires through SNA, CFA,
and MCA.

SNA was used to learn the structure of the network relationships that make up the collab-
orations of the laboratories studied, thus providing a visualization and some local and
structural measures. CFA was also used. This is essentially a validation of psychometric mea-
surement instruments and constructs, useful for this work because questionnaires are used to
explore the management practices of the Mexican laboratories. 最后, MCA was used funda-
mentally to estimate the proximity that exists between the leadership study variables, allowing
the measurement and visualization of the association between the study subjects and the attri-
butes of leadership.

The analysis of the information of the four distinctive elements of laboratory effectiveness is

presented below.

4.1. Laboratory Experience

Laboratory experience, according to the analysis of the interviews, confirms that those labo-
ratories that have the capacity to manage funded research projects, institutional support, 和

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equipment prior to their insertion in the Conacyt program have greater opportunities to per-
form better in their new role as National Laboratories. Many of the laboratories that were
awarded the distinctions already had a previous trajectory of between 3 和 10 年. 他们
有, 所以, certain technical conditions, links, 和认可. The HAWC National Lab-
oratory, 例如, is a laboratory that already had technical and instrumental capabilities,
institutional recognition, and international prestige prior to its designation as a National
Laboratory.

4.2. 经验

同样地, the interviews confirm that experience is also fundamental at the individual and col-
lective levels of the laboratory members, 因为, in the experience of the work team, 这
more social capital (Bourdieu, 1987) that the individual members of the laboratory have,
the greater the probability of effectiveness in the performance of their scientific work. 这里
it was also identified that the training of laboratory collaborators is strengthened by the avail-
ability of specialized equipment, playing an important role in the availability of a pool of
highly qualified personnel.

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4.3. 网络

The networking structures were obtained from the laboratory members’ responses to the ques-
tionnaires, which shows the actors with whom they have had a relationship in the last three
years for different activities, such as research, human resources training, and provision of
服务. The list of relationships is a table of adjacency (origin, destination) and it lists the
laboratories and the actors with whom there have been relationships; 有 221 节点
和 232 links. The laboratory with the highest number is LANCIS, 和 63, while the labora-
tory with the lowest number is LANIREM with level 7; the actor with the highest level and
which is not a National Laboratory is CINVESTAV, with level 4.

As for the structural measures, the level of centrality is used. This shows the importance of
the actors in the network in relation to the other actors with which it is linked. This is estimated
with the measure

CD vð Þ ¼

δ vð Þ
n - 1

where δ(v) is the degree of a certain node and n the total number of nodes in the network. 在
this exercise the nodes with the highest degree of centrality are LANCIS (0.28), LANCIC (0.19),
and HAWC (0.15). All other laboratories have levels below 0.10, 如图 2.

To visualize the level of centrality of the actors in the laboratory network, the Fruchterman-
Reingold algorithm (Fruchterman & Reingold, 1991) is used. This algorithm determines a fixed
equilibrium distance between the nodes, so as to bring the groups of nodes that are better
connected closer together, 如图 3.

In the network the collaborations of the 10 laboratories are visualized. 一般来说, these are
the laboratories that are positioned on the gradient of the degree of centrality ≥ 0.1. The actors
with whom the laboratories collaborate in sharing infrastructure, training highly specialized
human resources, carrying out research work, and in general providing services are colored
and positioned with a gradient ≥ 0.01 and there are more than 200 of these.

一般来说, the laboratories studied have a higher degree of centrality, followed by other
research centers and universities, as is the case of CINVESTAV, UNACH, and ENES-MOR,

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数字 2. Levels of centrality of the nodes of the laboratory network. 来源: Data obtained from
the questionnaires given to the National Laboratories in 2018.

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数字 3. Collaboration network of the laboratories studied. 来源: Data obtained from the questionnaires given at the National Laboratories
在 2018.

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除其他外. It is revealed that the laboratories mainly have links with academic actors,
which is natural due to the activities they systematically carry out (human resources training
and research). Relations with actors from industry are less frequent, as are those with actors
from government and civil society.

4.4. 领导

Regarding the study of leadership, the practices with which the scientists responsible (或者
领导者, who are researchers with PhDs, with prestige in their area of knowledge and recog-
nized professional trajectory, who act as heads of the laboratory workgroup) influence the per-
formance of activities concerning scientific work in accordance with the particular objectives
of these scientific and technological infrastructures were investigated.

A typology for the study of leadership in research units was used for developing countries,
particularly for the Mexican case, which considers authoritarian, paternalistic, technocratic,
and democratic styles (Jiménez, 1990). The practices of each style were characterized and
transferred to a questionnaire with 41 items with responses on a Likert scale from 1 到 5 to assess
the frequency of occurrence of practices and measures of agreement/disagreement with them.

According to Jiménez (1990)

(西德:129) Authoritarian leaders tell subordinates;
(西德:129) Paternalistic leaders sell to their children;
(西德:129) Technocratic leaders consult their assistants; 和
(西德:129) Democratic leaders join their collaborators

在这个意义上, the authoritarian leader is “a control figure with sufficient authority” (Pellegrini
& Scandura, 2008; Zylfijaj, Rexhepi, & Grubi, 2014), who has centralized decision-making.
Authoritarian leaders do not allow their followers to participate in decision-making, tell their
subordinates what activities must be performed for the fulfillment of the organization’s goals,
reduce the dedication of the followers to a single task and exercise a strict supervisory role.
They are leaders who dictate to their subordinates.

Paternalistic leadership means a strong figure of authority, moral integrity, discipline, 和
paternal benevolence. It is based primarily on unconditional obedience and loyalty. Underly-
ing this style is a “patent inequality of power between the leader and his followers” (Pellegrini
& Scandura, 2008). Such leaders are interested in life inside and outside the workplace and
promote the wellbeing of their collaborators so that they can perform effectively. They essen-
tially provide them with support, 保护, and care. Such a leader “assumes the role of a
father figure and has personal emotional ties” (Negandhi, 1975) 跟他们. Paternalistic
leaders do not consult on decisions, but rather explain to their followers the reasons for their
决定; they are leaders who sell decisions to their children.

Technocratic leaders have experience in some area of responsibility, especially when it has
to do with scientific or technical knowledge. Such a leader “is an individual who has received
technical or scientific training and firmly believes in the advantages of using science to solve
problems” (ibidem, 1990). This leader makes decisions based on his knowledge and the use of
技术. “He is open to suggestions from his subordinates, but the final decision is made by
himself” (Jiménez, 1990). They are leaders who consult their assistants.

最后, a democratic leadership stands out for “conducting itself by principles of self-
决心, 包容性, equal participation and deliberation of its followers” (Gastil,

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桌子 2.
the questionnaire applied to the National Laboratories (2019)

Standardized factor loads of the authoritarian style variables. 来源: Data obtained from

Variables
q6

q17

q23

q32

The technical manager …
描述

Monitors group discussions

Provides feedback after decisions have been made

Personally directs the completion of lab activities

Requires activities to be done as specified by him or her

Requests unquestioning obedience

Loads
0.57

0.55

0.81

0.68

0.60

α = 0.77; Ω = 0.78; CFI = 1; TLI = 1.

桌子 3.
the questionnaire applied to the National Laboratories (2019)

Standardized factor loads of the paternalistic style variables. 来源: Data obtained from

Variables
q2

q11

q16

q31

The technical manager …
描述
Takes into account the interests of employees

Explains decisions once they have been made

Delegates functions

Provides support, 保护, and care

Is interested in the wellbeing of the employees

Loads
0.58

0.71

0.62

0.75

0.90

α = 0.83; Ω = 0.84; CFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.85.

1994). The democratic leader “distributes responsibilities among members, empowers them
and serves as a fundamental support in decision-making” (Gastil, 1994). Such leaders do
not concentrate responsibility, but distribute it and demand its fulfillment, offer instructions
or suggestions, and seek to build new leadership. This is a type of leadership where construc-
tive participation, facilitation, and maintenance of a healthy environment are promoted. 他们
are leaders who join their collaborators.

As mentioned, these leadership attributes were translated into items grouped into four clas-
sifications (leadership styles) that were labeled and then applied in two questionnaires with 41
问题, one addressed to the technical manager and the other to his collaborators. 后
应用, validation was carried out with the CFA1 to validate the constructs of its measures.
The indicators used were the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and the Tucker Lewis Index (TLI)2

1 CFA “is a type of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) that provides measures of the relationships between
indicators and latent variables or factors” (棕色的, 2006). This analysis requires the sample covariance matrix
between the manifest variables (观察变量) as input, which identify the latent variables (or leader-
ship styles). By means of CFA, the latent variables are constructed from the manifest variables incorporating
the covariance structure. The constructs that are generated identify the factor loadings that are used to gen-
erate the scores of the latent variables (Bollen, 1989; 棕色的, 2006).

2 These “compare the fit of a target model with the fit of an independent or null model (compare the proposed
model against the null model) and indicate that the model of interest improves the fit by 95% relative to the
null model” (Kline, 2005).

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桌子 4.
the questionnaire applied to the National Laboratories (2019)

Standardized factor loads of the technocratic style variables. 来源: Data obtained from

Variables
q3

q28

The technical manager …
描述
Listens to feedback and incorporates it into technical decisions

Consults on technical issues

Assesses efficiency in laboratory operation

Loads
0.84

0.79

0.94

α = 0.87; Ω = 0.89; CFI = 1; TLI = 1.

桌子 5.
questionnaire applied to the National Laboratories (2019)

Standardized factor loads for democratic style variables. 来源: Data obtained from the

Variables
q4

q10

q12

q20

p22

The technical manager …
描述
When making decisions, calls upon the collaborators

Encourages participation and free discussion

Gives guidance when in doubt

Reminds the group of collective responsibilities

Distributes responsibility

Loads
0.62

0.88

0.76

0.66

0.74

α = 0.83; Ω = 0.85; CFI = 0.88; TLI = 0.77.

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数字 4.
National Laboratories (2019).

Leadership styles exercised in the National Laboratories studied. 来源: Data obtained from the applied questionnaire to the

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and for reliability we used Cronbach’s α (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) and McDonald’s Ω
(1999). The variables3 that would best explain each type of leadership were found, and are
shown in Tables 2–5.

For the profiling of leadership styles, those variables with loads higher than 0.50 是
taken. The score was calculated for each of the laboratories and the MCA4 was carried out.
The point cloud with the results of this analysis is shown in Figure 4. The leadership styles
identified within the laboratories are not pure, as the practices observed in personnel manage-
ment have characteristics of more than one type. The LANIREM, HAWC, and LANCIS labo-
ratories show practices that are closer to the technocratic and paternalistic styles, 尽管
LANCE is close to democratic leadership and MADIT corresponds to the authoritarian style.
另一方面, the styles exercised in LANMO, LANIES, LAVIS, LN-FESI, and LANCIC are
not defined under this metric.

5. 讨论

The related practices that explain the threshold of laboratory experience that was identified
exhibit the management capacity of projects financed by the responsible scientist and the
facilities provided by the institutions to carry out these projects, mainly the acquisition, 主要的-
租赁, and operation of specialized equipment, in which institutional support and commit-
ment play a central role. Decision-makers and institutions with Mexican National Laboratories
could consider establishing work schemes to strengthen the management capacity of funded
research projects and the critical routes to reinforce their technical-scientific capabilities.

The experience of the work team is explained by practices that promote the expansion of the
pool of knowledge and individual skills of laboratory members. This is directly related to
the availability of sufficient, modern, and adequate equipment for scientific work, 也
the recruitment of new talent. Scientific equipment is thus intertwined with capacity-building
of staff and attraction of other members. The practices associated with this element denote the

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3 The coefficients associated with each manifest variable are called factor loadings. Factor loadings indicate
the loading of each variable on each factor, and these describe the structural relationship between a latent
variable and an observed variable, typically reflecting the correlation structure from the covariance matrix.
This analysis also provides an error measure, or residual, of the observed variables with the latent variables.
The general CFA model is as follows: x = Λxξ + δ, where x are the observed variables, ξ are the latent
variables or dimensions, δ are the measurement errors, and Λx is the vector containing the factor loadings
of the latent variables on the manifest variables. 此外, some reliability and fit parameters emanate
from this analysis, where the most widely used in reliability are Cronbach’s α (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994)
and McDonald’s Ω (1999). These reliability measures assume that the indicators used are of the concept
when they meet the condition of being greater than 0.7 (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). The Cronbach α mea-
sures the internal consistency of the measure and takes values between 0 和 1, expressing the sum of
covariance between the components of a linear combination whose ratio estimates the variance of the
sum of all the elements of the variance and covariance matrix (棕色的, 2006). The coefficient Ω or composite
reliability coefficient is estimated from the factor loadings and its value is directly proportional to the value of
the loadings.

4 Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) “is a method of data analysis that graphically represents tables of
data” (Greenacre, 1993) and allows us to obtain interpretations that show the association between the rows
and columns of a contingency table; 那是, a table with qualitative variables (of the nominal or ordinal
类型). The representation of the data in contingency tables is seen as a cloud of points in two dimensions
whose relative positions are established on the basis of the value of each of the variables, with each position
reflecting the degree of association between each variable. This means that proximity in the graphical rep-
resentation means correspondence between categories.

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level of qualification of the members, their results in the laboratory, both individually and col-
lectively, and their contribution to the training of new scientists and technologists, as do the
links with other entities to access other scientific and technological infrastructures and
exchange experiences and personnel. 所以, we consider that the evaluation of the expe-
rience of the working team should also consider the accessibility to other teams and the exis-
tence of collaboration instruments with other institutions.

Continuing with the networking factor, there are notable actions aimed at exploiting rela-
tionships propitiated by conditions such as nature and subject matter. These patterns suggest
some regularities regarding the thematic orientations of the laboratories and the types of enti-
ties with which they relate, as shown by the most frequently observed proximities between
laboratories and academic entities. Along this line, the laboratories that have more key collab-
orations in services, technology transfers, and scientific and technological production are indi-
rectly linked to other actors with which establishing relationships could raise their recognition
and competitiveness. 因此, the assessment for this dimension could consider specifying the
type of entities with which relationships are established, their orientation, and the means
and modes through which a link is developed, so that the resources involved in a collabora-
tion can be used efficiently.

最后, the personal styles of leadership exercised by the scientist in charge or leaders
observed in these scientific and technological infrastructures are varied, although techno-
cratic, 民主的, and paternalistic style practices are more frequent. It is considered that
the framework used to analyze leadership is not sufficient to characterize the style of leading
the personnel of a research unit. It is useful to individually characterize the ways in which
laboratory personnel organize themselves to carry out scientific work, but observations are
needed to broaden the scope of this measurement, and another conceptual framework is
needed to incorporate other types of horizontal, collaborative, and relational leadership.

简而言之, the factors or dimensions that explain the effectiveness or success of laboratories
are neither unique nor definitive, nor are the practices into which they are translated. 一个
alternative for consistently understanding the practices that promote the effectiveness of the
Mexican National Laboratories could be an extension of the study to more laboratories, 给定
that this would allow us to deepen our knowledge of the managerial strategies of scientific
and technological infrastructures beyond UNAM (the largest and most prestigious university
in Mexico), beyond the geographical center of the country (where the economic, technolog-
伊卡尔, and cultural resources are concentrated), and beyond the thematic orientations seen in
这篇论文.

6. 结论

Mexican National Laboratories concentrate the resources and efforts of the state to meet the
demand for knowledge and technologies and to take advantage of strategic opportunities,
while increasing the social benefits of investment in STI. After almost 15 years since this impor-
tant initiative was launched by Conacyt, it was essential to carry out a diagnosis that allows us
to learn the capacities and practices of the laboratories that have proven to be effective in the
fulfillment of their activities and objectives. Their understanding and dissemination would sup-
port decision-making geared towards strengthening scientific and technological infrastructure,
optimizing resources, generating synergies, and offering quality services within a framework of
金融的, 社会的, and environmental sustainability. 在这个意义上, the present study responds in
a fundamental way to the question of what management practices are used in National Lab-
oratories to ensure the performance of their activities and the fulfillment of their objectives.

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The answer to this question was found with the absence of information related to strategies
as successful or effective practices, specifically in Mexican National Laboratories. This implied
mobilizing the framework proposed by Jiménez et al. (2018) to address the issue directly
through the application of questionnaires and interviews to a sample of 10 laboratories based
at UNAM. The data collected through these instruments refer to laboratory experience, 网-
在职的, work team experience, and leadership, and were analyzed, among other means,
making use of CFA, SNA, and MCA.

因此, laboratory experience shows that Mexican National Laboratories have a life-
span of between 3 和 10 年, even before being designated as such, during which they
have assembled specialized teams that are recognized in their regions, 在国内, or inter-
nationally; have developed a level of cutting-edge scientific and technological production;
and contribute strategically in the scientific, 技术性的, 经济的, 政治的, 和社会的
fields. In terms of networking, the laboratories most frequently exploit relationships that by
their nature mean that they can take advantage of the conditions of their immediate environ-
蒙特, in the institutional and thematic areas. With regard to the experience of the work team, 它
was found that the laboratories are distinguished by the quality of their personnel, 也
the quantity and quality of the laboratory equipment they have, allowing them to increase
effectiveness in their work. 最后, leadership in the laboratories is characterized by techno-
cratic, 民主的, and paternalistic practices in decision-making.

作者贡献

Leonardo Munguía: 概念化, 数据管理, 形式分析, 调查, 方法-
ology, 项目管理, 软件, 验证, 可视化, Writing—original draft,
Writing—review & 编辑. Eduardo Robles-Belmont: 概念化, 调查, Super-
想象, 验证, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & 编辑. Juan Carlos Escalante:
概念化, 调查, 监督, 验证, Writing—original draft, Writing—
review & 编辑.

COMPETING INTERESTS

The authors have no competing interests.

资金信息

The research project received no funding.

DATA AVAILABILITY

For more information on this work, please visit the following repository: https://github.com
/leomunguia/natlabs2022/tree/QSS2022–The-Management-of-Scientific-and-Technological
-Infrastructures-the-case-of-the-Mexican-National-Laboratories.

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