⋅ www.cbos.pl
Historical background
CBOS was established in 1982 as a governmental public opinion agency subordinated to the office of the Prime Minister. In 1997, the Parliament has granted CBOS the status of an independent foundation partly funded from the state budget and partly from commercial surveys. That has assumed full autonomy and credibility of CBOS.
Services provided and selected projects
The prime function of CBOS as a public foundation is to provide free information for the media, political and administrative institutions and the public. The statutory task of the Centre is to conduct monthly surveys ‘Current affairs and events’ on all important issues of the day as well as to systematically monitor social, economic and political sentiments, support for the government, other public institutions and political parties, rating of top politicians etc. Changes in public opinion on long-term projects and policies, such as European integration, economic and social reforms, welfare and employment policies etc., are also monitored. Twelve general surveys on such topics, sometimes supplemented by more academic questions, are conducted every year on representative samples of ca. 1200 respondents. Monothematic surveys are additionally conducted on less regular basis. About 200 thematic reports are published yearly. In addition to that, a commercial ‘Omnibus’ survey is conducted monthly and other quantitative as well as qualitative market researches are conducted irregularly (e.g. deep-probe interviews, ‘focus groups’, etc.). The ‘Omnibus’ is open to all clients who want to ask a question or a set of questions on the subjects relevant for them. It is conducted on a representative all-nation sample of about 1000 respondents. Bigger or specific samples are also available for specially ordered surveys. As the examples of most relevant surveys, in 1998-99, CBOS has conducted for the Institute of Public Affairs, CBOS has conducted a series of surveys on attitudes towards European Union among selected professional groups (teachers, farmers, bank employees and priests). Between 1983 and 1992, a series of surveys on social and political attitudes of youth in secondary schools was conducted as own CBOS project. Two series of ‘focus group’ (qualitative research) were conducted in 1997-99 for the Commercial Union and the Bank Pekao s.a. The survey ‘Polish Trade Unions in Economy under Privatisation’ was conducted in 1998 for the Institute of Public Affairs. ‘International Survey of Economic Attitudes’ was conducted in Poland under the title ‘Opinions about Economy and Government’ in 1994 and 1997 in co-operation with the Australian National University, the University of Turku (Finland) and the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences.
List of Clients
Among the most important clients of CBOS are:
- banks and insurance companies (e.g. Bank Pekao sa, Commercial Union, PZU Life Insurance)
- academic institutions (e.g. Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Public Affairs, Institute of Justice, Institute of Cancer research, Military Institute of Sociology)
- mass media (e.g. Readers’ Digest, dailies such as Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita)
- industrial organisations (c.g. Cargill Fodders, margarine production enterprises)
- Polish Post Office, etc.
Number of staff members:
46 staff members in the headquarters; 24 regional co-ordinators and 350 interviewers are working for CBOS. Only the first category is formally employed, regional co-ordinators are contracted and interviewers are paid by the number of conducted interviews.
