Study of talent management practices in the pharmaceutical sector in India

Abstract

Talent Management is an area being explored extensively by academicians and practiced in abundance by organizations. In an effort to understand the academic and managerial implication of this area of management, this study was conducted, so as to attain better clarity on understanding the talent management practices adopted as well as the inferences that employees derive out of these practices. Since pharmaceutical sector shows immense growth potential in the coming times, along with a high need to talent in the present and future scenario, the focus area for this study was derived to be set in the pharmaceutical backdrop. The qualitative data for this study was captured through personal interviews of 8 CEOs and 10 HR Heads of 10 companies selected in the sample. Thematic analysis of this data revealed 12 key themes related to talent management process and practices prevailing in the Indian Pharmaceutical industry. Interviews of top management and HR heads have given insights into strategies and challenges pertaining to implementation of these practices. The different strategies were interpreted and perceived by the employees of this sector. This perception of talent management was studied and in addition to this, the effect of the perception on desired organizational outcomes especially employee attitudes like employee engagement, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, perceived organizational support and job satisfaction were measured. These 12 themes were used as a basis of designing a scale to measure employees perception of talent management practices (POTM). This POTM scale was used with other scales of employee engagement, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, perceived organizational support and job satisfaction to collect data from a sample of 374 employees of 10 participant companies. Empirical data was collected from 374 employees of the pharmaceutical sector and with the help of regression, this effect was measured and studied.