Self-assessment of administrations on "Learning Organization" indicators

Effective learning is defined by many specialists as the main factor whereof the companies’ survival and success depend on in the extremely dynamic modern world of digital technologies and the rapid development of science (Garvin, 199315; Senge, 1990). As a main reason for the organizations’ rise or vice versa - a reduction of their productivity and life, analysts specifically point out their ability of learning (Bersin, 2013). In fact, the idea of learning organizations is not new. In the early 1990s, Fortune magazine proclaimed: "Forget about the old leadership, today's most successful corporations are the so-called learning organizations', and Shell's Ari de Geus added: "companies' ability to learn faster than their competitors is their only sustainable competitive advantage." An ideologist of the new views was Peter Senge, whose work "The Fifth Discipline" has become a table book of modern business leaders (Senge, 199020). For Senge, learning organizations are not simply those that strive to develop their people by constantly sending them to trainings, but those that develop an organizational culture that stimulates thinking and learning.

People like to learn and are motivated by nature to do so, but there are also a lot of barriers to these processes. According to Harvard professor David Garvin and his colleagues (Garvin, Edmonson, & Gino, 2008), the main reason for the failure of many organizations to become learning ones lies in the fact that managers simply do not know how to achieve such a goal. Garvin believes that management needs a clear guide, specific goals, well-defined steps, and a tool for feedback, measurement, and progress evaluation. Guided by this understanding, he and his colleagues created the “Is Yours a Learning Organization” questionnaire – a tool to assist leaders in the process of transforming traditional organizations into learning ones. The methodology of Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino appeared in 2008 and is used by all types of organizations worldwide.

In accordance with the written above, in 2016, as a part of the project "Alternatives of Formal Training in the Public Administration", IPA approved the self-assessment “Is Yours a Learning Organization” questionnaire of Garvin, Edmondson and Gino. In total 900 employees from 63 central and territorial administrations in Bulgaria participated in the self-assessment, and each one of them received a report with feedback and recommendations. Based on the results, at a specially organized ceremony, IPA announced the Learning Administrations’ Rating for 2016.

Institute of Public Administration’s initiative and “Is Yours a Learning Organization” questionnaire were extremely well welcomed by the Bulgarian administrations which motivate us to continue providing the opportunity for self-assessment and to support the administrations in their efforts for organizational excellence and quality management in the future.

The table below contains the initiative’s development from 2016 to 2025:

2016

2017

2018

2021

2023

2025

 

63 administrations

70 administrations

49 administrations

81 administrations

79 administrations

82 administrations

 

900 employees

1291 employees

1045 employees

2954 employees

4373 employees

3299 employees

 
 

 

The 2025 results largely reproduce the findings from 2023. They do not indicate a further substantial decline, but they also show no meaningful improvement in the learning culture of the Bulgarian administration. Across most indicators, Bulgarian administrations remain closer to the problematic zone in the Garvin, Edmondson and Gino benchmark than to the median values of foreign organizations. The 2025 survey covered 84 administrations, of which 82 met the representativeness requirements, with a total of 3,299 respondents.

 
The overall assessment of the learning culture of the Bulgarian administration, measured through the global indicator of the questionnaire, is 63 points, while the benchmark median of Garvin et al. is 74 points. This means that approximately 75% of the foreign organizations in the benchmark database demonstrate a stronger learning culture than the Bulgarian administration. 


The only dimension where the Bulgarian administration performs better than the foreign benchmark is “Time for Reflection”. This has been a consistent finding across previous surveys as well. However, this advantage should be interpreted carefully. The report notes that the availability of time for reflection does not automatically mean that this time is used effectively for in-depth analysis, learning from mistakes, or identifying opportunities for improvement. 


The results in the three main domains of the questionnaire are all below the benchmark median. In “Learning Environment”, the Bulgarian administration scores 62 points, compared with a benchmark median of 71 points. In “Leadership”, the result is 66 points, while the benchmark median is 76 points. This indicates a gap of 9 and 10 points respectively. It should also be noted that the benchmark includes both business organizations and administrations, and Garvin et al. point out that administrations generally tend to score lower than business organizations. 


The weakest performance remains in the domain of “Learning Processes”. The Bulgarian administration scores 60 points, with no change from 2023, compared with a benchmark median of 74 points. This is a gap of 14 points and places learning processes among the most problematic areas. The result indicates persistent weaknesses in the systematic collection of information, critical analysis, systems thinking, and the use of data-based decision-making in Bulgarian administrations.

 

SELF-ASSESSMENT RESULTS
чИПА