Performance Plants is Canada's largest agriculture biotechnology company. They develop technologies to enhance food, feed, and biofuel crop production. Recently, they signed an agreement with an African non-profit to develop drought-tolerant maize for Africa using Performance Plants' technology. Scientists at Performance Plants' research facility develop targeted changes to plant DNA. While satisfaction is currently high, larger multinational corporations offer more competitive compensation, and greater opportunities for promotion, posing a risk that Performance Plants could lose talented employees.

1. Performance Plants

2. Performance Plants
Performance Plants Inc., founded by David Dennis in 1995, is Canada’s largest agriculture biotechnology company .Their mission is to develop
science-based technologies for the purpose of enhancing the production of food, feed and bio-fuel crops. Recently, Performance Plants
signed an agreement with the Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International, a non-profit foundation with a focus to fight poverty,
hunger and malnutrition, to use the company's technology in a multi-year project to develop and field test drought tolerant white maize, a
staple crop in Africa. This is the first time that a Canadian company's agricultural biotech intellectual property is being transferred to Africa
for non-commercial purposes.
Some of the most technically-demanding work is performed at the company’s research facility, located in the heart of Innovation Place at the
University of Saskatchewan. Here a team of scientists perform a variety of highly specialized and interdependent activities. The role of
laboratory workers is to make the targeted changes to the plant DNA and then to ensure that the resulting plant tissues can re-generate with
the new genetic instructions. People not assigned to the laboratory, work as greenhouse technicians in the plant nursery or outside the
facility managing any number of field trials. Day-to-day supervision is shared within the team, in consultation with a respected team leader.
Everyone is expected to perform a variety of different tasks in their area of expertise, which in turn, affords them an opportunity to develop
and master a wide range of skills and use the “latest-and-greatest” technology and tools. Although team members perform their specialized
work, frequent team meetings helps everyone to see and track the fruits of their labour (e.g., finding out that three of your transgenic plants
provided a yield boost in the field trial). Often faced with unique challenges, team members often use their discretion to come up with
innovative solutions.
Historically, turnover rate within the Saskatoon facility has been low. In the past year or two, the economy in Saskatchewan has been
strengthening which, in turn, has increased the demand for a relatively small pool of talented people. A particular concern for Performance
Plants is the growing presence of several large multinational corporations (e.g., Dow AgroSciences; Bayer CropScience), and the effect of
these companies on the overall satisfaction felt by members of the team. Although Performance Plants pays its employees competitive
salaries for the region, the multinational corporations have a more competitive total compensation package (salary, benefits, bonus system,
company vehicle, etc..,). Moreover, the opportunity for promotion and career advancement in one’s technical specialty tends to be higher in
the larger, more complex multinational organizations.
A challenge now facing the company is holding on to its best and brightest. People who have the talent and creativity needed to help the
company realize its mission, unfortunately, are in short supply. Although Performance Plants has a core of dedicated employees across its
three locations, the size of this organization pales in comparison to the big multinational corporations that can do, essentially, the same or
similar work. With employees able to change jobs any time they want (i.e., suitable alternatives do exist), and, in many cases, do so without
having to change their address or their morning commute, overall satisfaction and commitment play a critical role in decisions to stay or
leave. At this time, satisfaction is high and turnover has been, historically, low. But it is a very fragile situation. The majority of employees who
work at the Saskatoon facility are females in their early to mid 30s. There is growing pressure to satisfy their need for career advancement
and development.

3. Questions
1. Put yourself in the shoes of a typical scientist
at the Saskatoon facility. What might you be
thinking or feeling with respect to job
satisfaction, and what might the
consequences of these thoughts and feelings
be?
2. If you did decide to move, what job
satisfaction issues might you have to deal
with in a larger, multinational corporation?