Constellations of conditions affecting employee job satisfaction in small and medium polish enterprises. A qualitative comparative analysis

Nowadays, SMEs operate in an increasingly competitive environment, full of threats from competing companies. One of the big challenges facing small and medium enterprises is human resource management. People spend most of their hours at work, and job satisfaction plays a vital role in an efficient work environment. Employee job satisfaction is a very complex construct, and is considered a critical factor in the organization's success. The purpose of this article is to examine how various, selected factors, such as: identification with the strategy, leadership style, job security and awards, simultaneously affect employee job satisfaction in Polish small and medium-sized enterprises. The sample of the study includes employees of Polish small and medium enterprises. Based on data from 274 surveys with Polish small and medium sized enterprises’ employees, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis was used to investigate several combination of conditions affecting job satisfaction. The results presented in the article confirm that a high level of job satisfaction can be achieved through many constellations of conditions. Small and medium-sized enterprises can adopt in practice these specific factors in several constellations to obtain a higher level of employee job satisfaction.