WORK SATISFACTION IN SMES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED COUNTRIES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Abstract

This article is based on empirical research conducted in SMEs in several countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Poland. The basis for empirical recognition was the assumption that it is possible to develop a positive attitude among employees towards work. The research problem concerned the search for the characteristics of the organizational environments of SMEs in the context of achieving job satisfaction. The research question was, “How and with what mechanisms can the positive attitudes of employees towards their work be strengthened?” To measure employees’ attitudes toward work, quantitative research was carried out using a questionnaire on a sample of 590 respondents. The key dimensions of satisfaction in the workplace were analyzed; these included the quality of management processes, social communication, interpersonal relations, remuneration or self-realization, and fulfillment of competence potential. Summing up the results of the empirical research, it is worth emphasizing that SME employees noticed many different factors affecting, to a greater or lesser extent, their perceptions of professional satisfaction. Among these, they most often mentioned detailed elements of the general context of achieving satisfaction in relation to, for example, individual abilities and skills, interpersonal relationships, communication processes, and reward and motivation systems.