MRS. TEJAL PATEL
ASSI. PROF.
C.K.PITHAWALLA INSTITUTE
OF MANAGEMENT,SURAT
RESEARCH AREA: EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
INDUSTRY:
PHARMACEUTICAL
“ A STUDY ON EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT AND
IDENTIFYING PREDICTORS
FOR EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT IN
PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
OF SOUTH GUJARAT
REGION”
Importance/Rationale of proposed
Investigation

After IT and BPO, it is now the pharmaceutical
sector that is facing the issue of high attrition rates.
For most HR managers, employee retention is the
biggest challenge. Talent or human resource is a
major asset for any company. Company invest high
amount of money for their recruitment, selection and
training and what happens to company if these
talents or employees leave the organization in short
while seeking new opportunities.

Pharmaceutical industry is most intellectual staff to
work, though it has a main issue of leaving the job
by employees in very short period. Indian
pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest
growing knowledge based sector with annual
attrition rate of around 30-35% compared to the
global pharmaceutical attrition rate of 10-12% per
annum.
Review of Literature
Employee Engagement: Kahn (1990), who was one of the early
academic researchers to define the concept of employee
engagement, viewed engagement as the ‘‘harnessing of
organizational members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement,
people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and
emotionally during role performances’’ (p. 694).
 More generally, engagement means to be psychologically present
when occupying and performing an organizational role (Kahn, 1990,
1992). When people are psychologically present they feel and are
attentive, connected, integrated, and focused in their role
performances (Kahn, 1992).
 People vary in the extent to which they draw on themselves in the
performance of their roles or what Kahn (1990) refers to as “self-inrole.” Thus, when people are engaged they keep their selves within
the role they are performing.


A recently published paper defined and measured employee
engagement as satisfaction, commitment and discretionary effort
(Fine, Horowitz, Weigler, & Basis, 2010). Advances in understanding
employee engagement will be difficult if not impossible to achieve
until a consensus is reached on a definition and measurement of the
construct.
“Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s
positive or negative emotional attachment to his job, colleagues and
organization which profoundly influences his willingness to learn and
perform at work.” Schmidt et al (1993) defines employee
engagement as a modernized version of job satisfaction, which is
basically an employee’s involvement with, commitment to and
satisfaction with work. According to the Hay Group, engagement is
comprised of two components: Commitment affective attachment to
and intention to remain with an organization and Discretionary Effort
the willingness to go above and beyond formal job requirements.



Engagement is most closely associated with the existing
construction of job involvement (Brown 1996) and flow
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Additionally, the presence of employee engagement might
also influence various outcome variables (Harter et al.,
2002). Two outcome variables were identified as having a
potential relation with employee engagement (Harter at al,
2002; Lloyd, 2008; Saks, 2006). These variables were
discretionary effort and intention to turnover.
The presence of employee engagement was thought to
result in increased discretionary effort and decreased
turnover (Lockwood, 2007; Meere, 2005; Saks, 2006;
Towers Perrin, 2007).


Organizations are focusing on employee engagement
as a promising strategy to increase retention and
improve productivity (Lockwood, 2007).
Macey and Schneider (2008) suggested that attention
to employee engagement is only now moving from the
practitioner to the academic literature. While human
resource researchers and practitioners are being asked
to play an increased role in the development of
engagement-enhancing strategies, and employee
engagement is being included in organizational
strategic planning, little research about how to
effectively develop employee engagement exists.
Research gaps identified in the
proposed field of investigation:


Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, which is one of the largest and
leading chains in the pharmaceutical laboratories with highest
turnover according to the preliminary indices, (Delaney and Huselid,
1996) its recent employee satisfaction survey of 2009 indicated
that 50% of the employees felt they would not be in the company
for the next two years and 69% felt their intention to quit is
influenced by management not peers.
(Dr. Alaknanda Dhotre, 2010) The pharmaceutical industry is
growing exponentially; there is a constant thirst for the best and the
brightest of employees. After information technology, the
pharmaceuticals industry is grappling with the highest level of
attrition rate of 30 to 35 per cent, according to a recent survey of
Indian pharmaceutical companies by Interlink Marketing Consultancy.

A useful comparison between a range of demographic
segment, from job level (senior executive,
director/manager,
supervisor/foreman,
specialist/professional, non-management salaried and
non-management hourly) to industry category (nonprofit, high tech, heavy manufacturing, insurance,
pharmaceuticals, hospitals and finance/banking) was
carried out by researchers at Towers Perrin (2003), who
found a pattern across the segments. Each group had
only a small group of highly engaged respondents, a
slightly larger disengagement group with the majority in
the moderately engaged group.
Employee engagement Predictors in
service industry:



In the only study to empirically test Kahn’s (1990) model, May et al (2004)
found that meaningfulness, safety, and availability were significantly
related to engagement. They also found job enrichment and role fit to be
positive predictors of meaningfulness; rewarding coworker and supportive
supervisor relations were positive predictors of safety, while adherence to
co-worker norms and self-consciousness were negative predictors.
Luthans and Peterson (2001, p.376) assert that the ‘soft’ human-oriented
measures such as employee attitudes, traits, emotions and perceptions are
being recognised as strong predictors of employee behavior and
performance.
From all the sources researched, it becomes evident that many of the
constructs associated with employee engagement have been researched.
Researchers have found a positive relationship between employee cognitive
attitudes and performance (Petty, McGee and Cavander, 1984, p.712),
personality traits and job performance (Barrick and Mount, 1991, p.6),
and emotions and favourable job outcomes (Staw, Sutton and Pelled, 1994,
p.51). Two personality traits are significant predictors of engagement:
extraversion and consolidation.




The Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) survey revealed that employee
engagement leads to 57% improvement in discretionary efforts (Corporate
Leadership Council, 2004). The CLC contends that emotional engagement has four
times the power to affect performance as compared to rational commitment.
Employee welfare, Empowerment, Growth and Interpersonal relationships as
the critical predictors i.e. those survey items which have major impact on
engagement. The predictors of Employee Engagement are highly organization
specific. (Vijaya Mani, 2011)
Perceived Supervisor Support is also likely to be an important predictor of
employee engagement. In fact, a lack of support from supervisors has been found
to be an especially important factor linked to burnout (Maslach et al., 2001).
Michael B. Shuck,2010) job fit, affective commitment, and psychological climate
were all significantly related to employee engagement and that employee
engagement was significantly related to both discretionary effort and intention to
turnover.
Need and Importance of Research
Problem:
Major HR issues is facing in
Pharmaceuticals Industry

(Michael Steiner;David H. Bugen;Brian
Kazanchy;William T. Knox;Margaret V.Prentice;
Lauren S. Goldfarb, 2007) Everyone working in the
pharmaceutical industry cannot help but notice that
it is undergoing a vigorous evolution. Much has been
written about how pharmaceutical companies will
need to change the way they do business in order to
remain profi table in a new and unfamiliar
competitive landscape.
Industry sources point out those pharmaceutical companies must not only attract
talent but also foster an environment in which their clever people are
inspired to achieve their fullest potential in a way that produces wealth and
value for all stakeholders.
 When asked about ranking the importance of a number of HR issues
between now and 2015, in a survey involving 360 senior executives of the
life science industry, those high-level managers identified skill shortages as
the number 1 risk they are facing.
 It is increasing obvious that pharmaceutical conies need to develop the
necessary skills and talents to cope with the changes and new models. It is
still time to change, train and develop our people.
 In India, we have a huge supply of manpower in the management pool, but
are sadly deficient in people management expertise.
 In this industry high churn other than the natural rate of attrition is mainly
due to poaching, burnout, high stress at work and inadequate payment
Objective of the Proposed Study:
1. To identify the important of predictors for
employee engagement in Pharma industry
2. To evaluate the relationship between predictors on
outcome of human retention
3. To evaluate the practices of employee engagement
in Pharmaceutical Industry
4. To evaluate the proposed model of employee
engagement in Pharmaceutical Industry
Research Methodology:

The purpose of this study is to examine practices and
identifying predictor of engagement for employees in a
Pharmaceutical industry located in South Gujarat. However,
empirical studies on employee engagement are limited and
the literature is unclear as to which variables are the
strongest predictors. Population as I choose operational and
Decision level employees and workers and executives from
random selection of pharmaceutical company. Here no
identified studies have examined employees specifically in
the human service fields such as social work, psychology, or
rehabilitation. Therefore, variables for this study are chosen
by reviewing the literature data that are available
regarding employee engagement.
Research Design:
 A research design is exploratory research and
Descriptive research.
 Sample Design:
 Sample Size:
For employees (operational level) segment: 400
For Managers (Decision level) segment: 250
 Sampling procedure: Two step Purposive sampling
 Sample Unit:
Workers and Executives of
Pharmaceutical companies

Primary Data:
(i) Structured Questionnaire ( Separate for both Employee and Managers)
(ii) Depth personal interview and discussion
 Secondary Data:
Reference books, published articles in journals, magazines and other published
and unpublished sources, government publications, electronic sources,
electronic databases and world wide web facilities.
 Tools and Techniques of Research:
A questionnaire was designed to grade the responses of the workers and
executives based on the degree of their agreement. In designing
questionnaire 5 point likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) was
used to reduce the statistical problems of extreme skewness.

Reliability and Validity:
 Statistical techniques will be used to analyze the
collected data. Software packages like Microsoft
Excel and statistical software (like SPSS, SPSSAMOS pack) will be used for data analysis. The
collected data will analyze by preparing graphs
(like bar charts, pie charts) and understanding the
trends depict by answer provide in the
questionnaire and inference will be drawn on the
data collected
References:








Agarwala, T. (2003). ‘Innovative Human Resources Practices and Organisational Commitment: An Empirical
Investigation’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(2): 175–97.
Allport, G. W. (1947). ‘The Psychology of participation.’ Psychological Review, 52, 117-132.
Allport, G. W. (1961). ‘Pattern and growth in personality.’ New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. and
Organizational Psychology, 1, 3-30.
Anedrew Ballentine, Nora McKenzie. Allen Wysocki., Karl Kapner (2003) The role of monetary and non
monetary incentives in workplace as influenced by career stage 1, University of Florida, Publication of
Department of Food and Resources Economics, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
AstraZeneca. (2009). ‘Safety, health & wellbeing.’ Retrieved February 28, 2009, from
www.astrazeneca.com/responsibility/our-employees/4957447/safety-health-wellbeing/
Bandura, A. (1977), ‘Self--efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioural Change", in Schyns, B. & von
Collani, G. (2002), 'A New Occupational Self- efficacy Scale and Its Relation to Personality Constructs and
Organizational Variables," European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 11 (2): 219-41.
Barrick, M.R. & Mount, M.K. (1991). ‘The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a metaanalysis.’ Personnel Psychology, Spring, pp.1-26.
Binks, S.P. (2003). ‘Occupational toxicology and the control of exposure to pharmaceutical agents at work.’
Occupational Medicine, 53, 363-370.











Brown, S. P., & Leigh, T. W. (1996). ‘A new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort, and
performance.’ Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 359-368.
Buckingham, M. & C. Coffman (1999). ‘First, break all the rules: what the world’s greatest managers do differently’. New York,
NY: Simon & Shuster.
Cattell, R. B. (1973). ‘Personality and mood by questionnaire.’ New York: Jossey Bass.
Chakrabarty S, Oubre DT, Brown G (2008). The impact of supervisory adaptive selling and supervisory feedback on
salesperson performance. Ind. Mark. Manage., 37: 447-454.
Corporate Leadership Council (2004). ‘Driving Performance and Retention through Diamond, M.A. and Allcorn, S. (1985)
‘Psychological dimensions of role use in bureaucratic organisations’, in Kahn, W.A. (1990) ‘Psychological conditions of personal
engagement and disengagement at work’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 33, pp692-724.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2003). ‘Good business: Leadership, flow, and the making of meaning.’ New York: Viking Penguin.
Development Dimensions International (DDI) (2005). ‘Driving Employee Engagement’, DDI White Paper. Available at
www.ddiworld.com (Accessed on 28 August 2009).
Development Dimensions International. (2005). (Predicting Employee Engagement MRKSRR12-1005 Development Dimensions
International, Inc., MMV. [Online] Available:www.ddiworld.com (October 30,2008)
Dr. Dhotre. A. (2009). ‘Attrition in pharmaceutica Industry: human resource Management’s role and strategy.’ International
Research Journal , August 2010 ISSN- 0975-3486 RNI: RAJBIL 2009/30097 VOL I *ISSUE 11
GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK). (2008a). Answering the questions that matter. Corporate responsibility report 2007. Brentford,
Middlesex: GlaxoSmithKlein. Retrieved February 9, 2009, from www.gsk.com/responsibility/cr-review-2007/downloads/CRReport-2007.pdf
Golden TD, Veiga JF (2008). ‘The impact of superior–subordinate relationships on the commitment, job satisfaction, and
performance of virtual workers.’ Leadersh. Q., 19: 77-88.











Hackman, J. R. & Oldham, G. R. (1980), Work Redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between
employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 87, 268-279.
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2003). Wellbeing the workplace and its
relationship to business outcomes: A review of the Gallup studies. In C. L. Keyes & J. Haidt
(Eds.), Flourishing: The positive person and the good life (pp. 205-224). Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
Hong L, While AE, Barriball KL (2005). Job satisfaction among nurses: a literature review. Int. J.
Nurs. Stud., 42: 211-227.
Huselid, M. A., & Delaney, J. T. (1996). ‘The Impact of Human Resource Management on
Perceptions Of Organisational Performance’. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), 949969.
Huselid, M.A. (1995) ‘The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices On Turnover,
Productivity, And Corporate Financial Performance’, Academy of Management Journal, 3(38):
635–672.
Kahn, W. (1990). ‘Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at
work.’ Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692-724.
Kahn, W. (1992). ‘To be fully there: Psychological presence at work.’ Human Relations, 45, 321349.
Kanungo R (1982). ‘Measurement of job and work involvement’, J. Appl. Psychol. 67: 341-349.
Kassahun, Tilaye. (2005). ‘Level of Organisational Commitment: Its Correlates and Predictors’,
IndianJournal of Industrial Relations, 41 (1): 29–63.
Kim WG, Leong JK, Lee Y (2005). ‘Effect of service orientation on job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intention of leaving in a casual dining chain restaurant.’ Hosp.
Manage., 24: 171-193.









Levy, B. & Wegman, D. (2000). ‘Occupational health. Recognizing and preventing
work-related disease and injury (4th ed.)’. Philadelphia-New York: Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins.
Lloyd, R. (2008). ‘Discretionary effort and the performance domain.’ The Australian
and New Zealand Journal of Organizational Psychology, 1, 22-34.
Lockwood, N. R. (2007). ‘Leveraging employee engagement for a competitive
advantage.’
Luthans, F. & Peterson, S.J. (2001). ‘Employee engagement and manager selfefficacy. Journal of management development, 21 (5), pp. 376-387.
Luthans, F., & Peterson, S. J. (2002). ‘Employee engagement and manager self
efficacy: implications for managerial effectiveness and development.’ Journal of
Management Development, 21 (5), pp 37687.
Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008). ‘The meaning of employee engagement.’
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 3-30.
Macey, W. H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K. M., and Young, S. A. (2009), ‘Employee
engagement: Tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage.’ WileyBlackwell, Malden, MA.
Mamta Mohapatra, Baldev R. Sharma(2010) ‘Study of Employee Engagement and
its Predictors in an Indian Public Sector Undertaking’ Global business review, 11:2
(2010): 281–301Management Decision, 28, 6.
Maslach, C. Schaufelli, W.B. and Leiter, M.P. (2001) ‘Job burnout.’, Annual Review of
Psychology, Vol 52, pp397-422.













Masson, R. C., Royal, M. A., Agnew, T. G., & Fine, S. (2008). Leveraging employee engagement: The practical
implications. Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Mathew H.( 1983) Developing employment package attracting and retaining best employees,
May, D.R. Gilson, R.L. and Harter, L.M. (2004) ‘The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and
availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work’,Journal of Occupational and Organisational
Psychology, Vol 77, pp11-37.
Meyer JP, Allen NJ (1991). ‘A three component conceptualization of organizational commitment.’ Hum. Resour.
Manage. Rev., 1: 61-89
Michael B. Shuck. (2010) ‘Employee Engagement: An Examination of Antecedent and Outcome Variables.’
Florida International University, 103.
Mohapatra, Mamta and Baldev R. Sharma. (2008). ‘Drivers of Organisational Commitment among
Managers of Industrial Organisations: A Case Study’, Global Business Review, 9(1): 51–63.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2010). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A
practical guide for managers. New York: Routledge.
Nair M.R.R. and Rao T.V. (1991). ‘Excellence through HRD.’, New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill.
Perrin T. (2003). Working Today: Understanding What Drives Employee Engagement The 2003 Towers Perrin
Petty, M.M., McGee, G.W. & Cavander, J.W. (1984). ‘A meta-analysis of the relationships between individual
job satisfaction and individual performance. Academy of Management Review. Vol.9, pp. 712-721.
Saks, A. M. (2006). ‘Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement.’ Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 21, 600-619.
Scanduraa TA, Williams EA (2004). ‘Mentoring and transformational leadership: The role of supervisory
career mentoring.’ J. Vocat. Behav., 65: 448-468.
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., Gonzalez-Roma, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement
and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71-92.

















Sharma A.M. (1991). ‘Understanding Wage System.’, New Delhi, Himalaya Publications.
Sharma, Baldev R. and Mamta Mohapatra. (2009). ‘Personal and Situational Factors as Predictors of Managerial Motivation’, Indian
Journal of Industrial Relations, 44(3): 426–40.
Sharma, Baldev R. and Rama J. Joshi. (2001). ‘Determinants of Organisational Commitment in a Manufacturing Organisation in the
Private Sector’, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 37(2): 199–216.
Sharma, Baldev R. and Shailendra Singh. (1991). ‘Determinants of Organisational Commitment’, Management and Labour Studies,
16(2): 63–75. Sharma, M.P. 1997. ‘Organisational Commitment and its Determinants’, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 33(2): 193–
210.
Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M. &Hulin, C.L. (1969). ‘The measurement of satisfaction in work and Retirement.’ Chicago: Rand Mcnally.
Staw, B.M., Sutton, R.T. & Pelled, L.H. (1994). ‘Employee positive emotions and favourable outcomes of the workplace.’ Organisation
Science, Vol.5, pp. 51-71.
Teichman, R.F., Fleming Fallon, L., & Brandt-Rauf, P.W. (1988). ‘Health effects on workers in the pharmaceutical industry: A review’.
Journal of the Society of Occupational Medicine, 38, 55-57.
The Gallup Organization (2004). Quoted in Crabtree, S (2004) Getting personnel in the work place – Are negative relationships
squelching productivity in your company? Gallup Management Journal, June. Retrieved from http://www.workliferesources.
com/admin/pdf/Gallop_Committment_Results.pdf, accessed during April 2011.
Towers Perrin talent report. (2003). ‘Understanding what drives employee engagement.’ U.S. Report.
Towers Perrin. (2003). ‘Employees have strong emotional connection to work.’ The Galt Globa review.
http://www.galtglobalreview.com/careers/employees_strong_emotion.html (accessed 27 October 2003)
Vijaya Mani. (2011). ‘Analysis of Employee Engagement and its Predictors.’. International Journal of Human Resource Studies ISSN
2162-3058 2011, Vol. 1, No. 2
Willem A, Buelens M, Jonghe ID (2007). ‘Impact of organizational structure on nurses’ job satisfaction: A questionnaire survey. Int. J.Nurs.
Stud., 44: 1011-1020.
Wollard, K. & Shuck, B. (2011).Antecedents of employee engagement: A structured review of literature. Advances in Developing Human
Resources, 13(4), 429- 446.
Wright, P. M., McMahan, G. C. & McWilliams, A. (1994). Human resources and sustained competitive advantage: A resource-based
perspective. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(2), 301–326.
Wright, P. M., Gardner, T. M. & Moyniham, L. M. (2003). The impact of HR practices on the performance of business units. Human
Resource Management Journal, 13(3), 21-36.
Yang J (2009). ‘Antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction in the hotel industry.’ Jen-Te Int. J. Hosp. Manage.
Zigarmi, D., Nimon, K., Houson, D., Witt, D., & Diehl, J. (2009). ‘Beyond engagement:Toward a framework and operational definition for
employee work passion.’ Human Resource Development Review, 8, 300-326.
THANK YOU