Influence of Workplace management initiatives on talent engagement in the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry

Employee recognition and talent engagement

Recognition is the informal, timely or formal acknowledgement of an individual or team's effort. If efforts of employees are adequately recognised with appropriate performance incentives, employees’ engagement will be enhanced (Falola et al., 2018b). Nazir & Islam (2017) classified employee recognition into four major types, these include personal recognition, result recognition, work practice recognition and job dedication recognition. Generally, everyone wants to be recognised. Masri & Elsuliman (2019) argued that the most important form of employee recognition is work practice recognition. Findings reveal that lack of work practice recognition is very risky because it contributes to workplace distress (Masri & Elsuliman, 2019; Nazir & Islam, 2017).

Recognizing employee’s achievement sends a positive signal of being valued and cared for by the organizational management which engenders their dedication and engagement to organizational goals (Kahn, 1990). This is reflected in their acquisition of more knowledge and experiences (talent cognitive engagement), display of positive feelings and emotions towards their jobs, supervisors and colleagues (talent emotional engagement) and in physical actions put into jobs (talent behavioural engagement). Inegbenojie (2018) reiterated that employee recognition is a management tool used to achieve talent engagement in organizations. Workplace management initiatives such as recognition and employee wellbeing foster employees’ engagement in the world of work.

Employee wellbeing and talent engagement

Wellbeing according to the World Health Organization (2020) is defined as the state of good physical health, mental, emotional, social and financial wellness. Wellbeing is the state of employee’s state of happiness, self-actualization, life satisfaction and positive mood in the workplace. Studies have shown that if employees are healthy, satisfied and emotionally stable, they will be more productively engaged (Falola et al., 2018b; Bakker et al., 2014; Smith & Smith, 2019). Thus, for organizations to earn employee’s engagement, their wellbeing must be prioritized. This can be done by putting in place initiatives in the areas of their financial, health, educational and financial wellness (Keeman et al., 2017). The financial wellness initiatives assist employees to manage their daily finances and achieve long-term financial goals. Organizations do offer financial counseling in the areas of budgeting, managing assets, building credit, reducing debt and saving for retirement to ensure employee financial wellness (Keeman et al., 2017).

Some organizations provide employees with access to earned wages based on demand to help them solve cash flow problems, especially for low-wage workers (Bennett et al., 2017). All these are some of the initiatives that motivate employees to be more engaged in the world of work. Educational wellness on the other hand is a management initiative to encourage employees to further their education through full or partial scholarships (Bennett et al., 2017). Organizations also help to improve employee’s health status by conducting regular health screenings and tests to deal with preventable and chronic conditions (World Health Organization, 2020). Studies have shown that employees with high level of health, financial and educational wellbeing put in positive thought and effort into their job responsibilities in the work place (Keeman et al., 2017; Saks, 2016).

Learning/development and talent engagement

Learning and development is organizational consistent effort in enhancing employee acquisition of knowledge, job-related skills and improved employee behaviour. Employees are able to acquire, transfer, interpret and share information better and more engaged with their core job responsibilities (Chiekezie et al., 2016). Learning and development is an essential administrative function of human resource management (HRM) that helps the employees to be productively engaged. According to Adelere (2017) employees are the most important assets of any organization, superseding money, materials and machines. According to Siddiqui (2019) employee learning and development is considered as the most essential function of any proficient organization, including those in the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry has invested heavily in employee learning and development to operate the machines used for drug production processes, which in turn better facilitates employee engagement which is a major driver of competitive advantage (Ogueyungbo et al., 2019).

Diversity/inclusion and talent engagement

Diversity in the organization is not tantamount to chaos and reduced output as a creative and engaged workforce with diverse ideas and talents can foster the accomplishment of organizational goals (Onwuchekwa et al., 2019). Diversity brings people of different ages, skills, language, education, values, competences, beliefs, sexual orientation, race, disability, religion, tribe, culture, gender, colour, ethnicity, nationality, lifestyle and economic status together (Akinnusi et al., 2017).

Management initiatives of managing diversity/inclusion is an organizational strategy used to foster an encouraging workplace environment. Diversity management initiatives must recognise, respect, tolerate and accept differences among employees (Akinnusi et al., 2017). Talent engagement according to Macey et al. (2019) is determined by many interactions in the workplace, one of which is diversity. Scholars like Onwuchekwa et al. (2019); Macey et al. (2019) asserted that employee engagement is dependent upon various factors in the workplace. Nevertheless, Inegbenojie (2018) opine that individual differences and effective inclusive management approach play a vital role in determining an employee's level of engagement.

Research design

The study used a survey for data collection which was performed between November 2018 and January 2020.

The study adopted descriptive research design. The descriptive survey design approach focuses on the phenomenon of interest which is intended to provide reliable answers to questions about the measurement of variables. The choice of survey method was based on its time effectiveness as well as its general picture of respondents’ opinions which enhances hypotheses testing. This helped the authors to investigate whether workplace management initiatives had any relationship with talent engagement in some selected pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria. This study adopted the positivism research philosophy. What informs the choice of positivism is based on the application of knowledge is based on natural phenomena, their properties and relationships. Positivism thus prefers quantitative approach rather than qualitative model in data collection with a view to establishing trends and patterns. To this end, the study used quantitative research approach.

Sample size and sampling procedures

There are 115 registered pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria out of which over 50% are located in Lagos State (Pharmapproach, 2018). The ten best rated pharmaceutical companies were selected in Lagos State Nigeria. Lagos State was chosen because of the high concentration of pharmaceutical companies in the state. In addition, all the ten selected companies manufacture their products locally. The selection of the ten pharmaceutical companies was based the year of establishment, the number of brands, growth and expansion, the total number of products manufactured, and the corporate image (Pharmapproach, 2018; PMG-Man, 2019). Also, it is believed that the best rated pharmaceutical companies must have been managing and retaining the talented employees over the years. The retention and engagement of the employees with distinctive talents must have culminated into the level of performance, scientific innovation and quality service delivery of the selected companies. The justification for the criteria used are presented as follows:

The ten selected pharmaceutical companies have a total 3787 employees excluding casual, contract and lower level staff which represents the population of the study. Sample size was determined using Bartlett et al. (2001) table chart and the sample size accounted for 570 and was approximated to 600 to allow for unreturned copies of administered questionnaire at the margin of error of 0.05. Proportional affixation criterion (PAC) was used for the determination of the copies of questionnaire administered to each organization. Pharmaceutical companies sample in each stratum is proportional to the relative weight of the study population as depicted in Table 1.

Multiple samplings (purposive, stratified and simple random) techniques were used in this study. Purposive sampling was used because only the permanent employees at the middle, senior and executive management level cadres with a minimum of 2 years in their current organizations participated in the survey in order to get more accurate and reliable information. Also, stratified sampling was adopted because the population comprises different strata and all employees in each stratum were giving equal chance of been selected with the use of a simple random sampling method. The study used a structured questionnaire adapted from the existing literature to collect data from the respondents with the use of 5-point Likert scale. Copies of questionnaire were administered by the research staff with the help of three research assistants during working hours.

Measures and variables

To measure workplace management initiatives, the authors created a workplace management initiatives (WMI) scale by adapting the elements of Cannon (2015); Inegbenojie (2018) and Keeman et al. (2017) instruments. The researchers developed the measurement instruments into 12 items representing the four domains of (1) recognition, (2) employee wellbeing, (3) learning and development, and (4) diversity and inclusion. Each of the domain was measured with three items each on a 5 Likert scale of strongly agree (5), agree (4), indifference (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1). Based on the response options categorization, the higher total scores on the scale indicate respondents' perception on the subject of workplace management initiatives The following are the examples of the items: “My organization takes time to publicly acknowledge my successes”, “My organization provides incentives, bonuses and other rewards for outstanding performance”, “I receive praise from my supervisor when I successfully reach performance goals or other targets”, “My organization gives adequate attention to employees’ wellbeing”, “The welfare packages for employees are motivating”, “My organization gives priority to safety of lives and property of the employees”, “My organization provides conducive environment that encourages learning and development”, “I have access to the learning and development I need to do my job well”, “This is great company for me to make a contribution to my development”, “Employees who are different from most others are treated fairly in my organization”, “My organization is committed to diversity and inclusion”, “In my organization, everyone has access to equal employment opportunities regardless of their differences”.

To measure talent engagement, the authors adapted the elements of Nazir & Islam (2017) instruments in developing the items. The measurement instruments were developed into nine items representing the three domains of (1) cognitive engagement, (2) behavioural engagement, and (3) emotional engagement. Each of the domain was measured with three items each on a 5 Likert scale of strongly agree (5), agree (4), indifference (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1). Based on the response options categorization, the higher total scores on the scale indicate respondents’ perception on the subject of talent engagement. The examples the items are: “My job allows me to be creative in performing my responsibilities”, “My organization encourages me to use my skills and capabilities in the work process”, “I often think of ways and suggestions to improve my work”, “I feel a sense of belonging and identify with my organization”, I am proud to work in this organization”, “I feel like staying in this organization”, “I exert a lot of energy doing work”, “I feel energized and empowered at work”, “I stay at work till the job is finished”. Face and content validity of the items were checked while internal consistency reliability testing was carried out through composite reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) estimate as well as Cronbach's Alpha. A copy of the questionnaire is provided as extended data (Falola et al., 2020b).

Ethical consideration

The principal investigator submitted an application for ethical approval of research proposals to the Business Management Research Ethics Committee on 9^th October 2018 for approval (Approval No: BMREC/18/21/102). Research team was given introduction letter that was presented to the selected organizations stating the purpose of the research. All the participants were adequately informed about the objective of this study. Only willing employees participated in the survey. All respondents were assured they would stay anonymous and assured that their responses will be treated with extreme confidentiality. It is equally imperative to note that verbal consent was gotten from the respondents of this research. The representatives of the selected pharmaceutical companies were consulted for research permission guidelines. Based on the information provided in principle, an application letter was written requesting permission to research their organizations with the objective of the study clearly stated. Also, the research ethics approval form was attached to the application letter. This type of research is categorised as exempt research that involves a survey with no or minimal risk i.e. level 1 research as presented in the Research Ethical Application Form. In social and management sciences, exempt research does not require signed consent from the participants rather implied consent is usually sufficient particularly in the spirit of anonymity and confidentiality. Through verbal consent, the researchers ensured that the respondents were well informed about the context and intent of this research and were kept abreast with the process and regime of participation.

Validity and reliability of the research instrument

The research instrument validity was determined through face and content validity by two distinguished professors in the field. Meanwhile factor loadings, compose reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) estimate as well as Cronbach Alpha were carried out to ascertain the reliability of the research instrument. A pilot study was conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the research instrument. As recommended by Baker (1994) the sample size for pilot study should be at least 10% of the study population. The sample size of the main study was expected to be 600 using Bartlett et al. (2001) table chart. In total, 60 copies of questionnaire were administered to a pharmaceutical company in Ota. The pilot result shows that data was normally distributed and the scale reliabilities (factor loadings, compose reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) estimate as well as Cronbach’s Alpha) were well above the benchmarks as recommended by Byrne (2001) and Tabachnick & Fidell (2007). The statistical outcomes are depicted in Table 2.

Statistical analysis

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 22 was used for the coding of the retrieved data while Smart PLS 3.0 was used for the analysis of the data that shows the degree of influence of workplace management initiatives on talent engagement in the pharmaceutical industry. The smart PLS displays the algorithm and bootstrapping models. Algorithm model is a structure of regressions in terms of weight vectors that helps to determine the path co-efficient, the r-square values and the significance values. The bootstrapping helps in determining the significance testing of coefficient and t-values. The default bootstrapping in Smart PLS is 500 subsamples which helps to facilitate significant results. This was enhanced by increasing bootstrapping value to 5000 as suggested by (Ramayah et al. (2018). Meanwhile, linear regression analysis can as well be used as alternative statistical tool for the analysis. Also, the processes and procedures required for the assumptions of credible research analysis were systematically and carefully checked to be sure that the data presented are sufficiently adequate and accurate as recommended by Kline (2005). The assumptions include, appropriate research design, reliabilities, data normality and linearity. In total, 429 copies of questionnaire representing (71.5%) response rate were returned and used as final sample for this study.

The practical implication of the study

The study investigated the influence of workplace management initiatives on talent engagement in Nigerian pharmaceutical industry. Employees from reputable pharmaceutical firms formed the respondents’’ base for the study. This study posits that dimensions of workplace management initiatives, especially recognition of exceptional job performance, employee wellbeing, learning and development as well as diversity and inclusion are significant to influence the level of engagement of employees with distinctive competencies in the pharmaceutical industry. It is recommended that management of the pharmaceutical industry should invest in organisational supports through appropriate and timely welfare initiatives that will foster talent engagement. Moreover, management must understand their roles as professional leaders and influencers towards the employees in driving optimal talent engagement. The role of the leadership of the pharmaceutical industry, especially with regards to ensuring workplace initiatives that will continuously create an enabling and conducive work environment that permit employees to stay abreast of best practices and get engaged with their job responsibilities is also strongly advised. All the stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry are admonished to support initiatives that will encourage productive engagement of the employees.

Underlying data

Figshare: SPSS DATA-WMI.sav. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12589571.v1 (Falola et al., 2020b)

This project contains the following underlying data:

Extended data

Figshare: SPSS DATA-WMI.sav. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12589571.v1 (Falola et al., 2020b)

This project contains the following extended data:

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero “No rights reserved” data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication).