This research was aimed at analyzing Colombian knowledge generating centers from the work environment perspective based on the theoretical contributions of Rubio (2012), Brunet (2009), Robbins (2012), Mintzberg and Brian (2011), among others. It was a descriptive and field research with a non-experimental and transectional design. The population consisted of authorities and the administrative staff of public universities in Colombia. A multiple-choice questionnaire with the following response categories: Always, Almost Always, Sometimes, Almost Never and Never was designed. These response options corresponded to the frequency of the behavior stated in the problem. The 12-item questionnaire was validated by five experts. Reliability was calculated by the Alpha-Cronbach method with a result of 0.94, which corresponds to a high reliability level. Results showed that the type of work environment that prevails in Colombian public universities is the exploitative authoritarian type.