Knowledge is the fuel that runs a successful organization. The success or failure of any organization depends on knowing the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions of its people and also of the people it serves. The best way to determine these is by conducting a survey. A survey may be called different things, depending on its purpose: a poll, a questionnaire, an opinionnaire, an evaluator, an assessment, an inventory, or a survey. For simplicity here, we refer to these various forms as surveys.

A survey is a systematic, scientific, and impartial way of collecting information. For example, you can survey a group (or sample) of people about their feelings, motivations, plans, beliefs, and personal, educational, and financial background. This information is used to generalize conclusions or statements about the larger group (or population) from which the sample is drawn. The intent of the survey is not to describe the particular individuals who take part in a sampling, but to obtain a statistical profile of the population.

Surveys are all around us. They can be used to assess such things as: