The economic life has been investigating for decades the question of by what kind of activity, by the control of which factors can an enterprise be successful. As a consequence of the economic development and the informational boom, the hard factors, the purchasable and money-dependent systems and resources are accessible for everyone, therefore they have ceased to compose competitive advantages i.e. discriminative success factors. Consequently, the attention have turned towards the soft, human factors. Now we know that for the success the harmonious co-operation of both sides is needed. It was exactly for the practical adaptation of this approach why the European Foundation for Quality Management called the EFQM self-assessment model into being as the basis of quality awards. It unites in one model the factors of the successful business operation and helps the organizational self-improvement by its self-assessment method. The operation of the method, however, is frequently impeded by problems which are caused by exactly the difficult handling of the previously mentioned soft factors in practice. For the sake of successful operation, a solution for these problems must be found. During our research we conducted a primary investigation, having regard to the Hungarian peculiarities, among those Hungarian-owned companies which competed for the National Quality Award. In the course of the investigation we examined their organizational processes according to the factors of the EFQM, although mainly concentrating on the working methods and mechanisms, not on results. Comparing the individual case studies we have obtained the conclusion that, among the soft factors, job satisfaction at the Hungarian-owned companies does not follow the EFQM's viewpoint on self-improvement. Therefore, after a brief theoretical review of the EFQM model and one of its elements, job satisfaction, and through an example which is relevant from the view of the handling of satisfaction, we present the satisfaction-improvement method which we developed by observing the results of the primary investigation. © Andrea Bencsik, Zsuzsanna Nagy, 2007.