PIFI in public universities: from rational decision-making to institutional legitimacy.

Abstract

PIFI implementation in 2001, modified the university´s organizational behavior as well as the leader´s commitment. Institutions gained experience in conducting participatory planning exercises and consistency in justifying their requests while leaders improved their responsiveness to defend with hard data solvency and institutional proposal to the evaluation committee, answer doubts and questions, and became accountable of financial resources obtained. In order to analyze if the experience and the allocated resources have a positive impact (both in the medium and long term) on the management quality, the academic capacity and competitiveness or, if they are only acting as a catalyst for a process of institutional isomorphism, it is imperative to pursue this process.