People enter groups and organizations with certain characteristics that influence their behaviour, the more obvious of these being personality characteristics, perception, values, and attitudes. These characteristics are essentially intact when an individual joins an organization, and for the most part, there is little that those in the organization can do to alter them. Yet they have a very real impact on behaviour. In this light, we look at perception, personality, values, and attitudes, and their impact on individual behaviour.
Employees are increasingly demanding satisfaction out of their jobs. As we discuss in Chapter 3, overall job satisfaction in the Canadian workplace is relatively high. The belief that satisfied employees are more productive than dissatisfied employees has been a basic assumption among managers for years. Although some evidence questions that causal relationship,5 it can be argued that society should be concerned not only with the quantity of life that is, with concerns such as higher productivity and material acquisitions but also with its quality. Researchers with strong humanistic values argue that satisfaction is a legitimate objective of an organization. They believe that organizations should be responsible for providing employees with jobs that are challenging and intrinsically rewarding.
Job satisfaction is also of concern because it is negatively related to absenteeism and turnover, which cost organizations considerable amounts of money annually.