Journal Midha Akash

Research Article
Journal homepage: http://www.ijpsl.com
ISSN:2277-4564
Midha Akash et al /International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Letters 2013 Vol. 4 (1)| 319-324
Sales Force Attrition: A Study of Indian and Multinational Pharmaceutical

Organizations
Midha Akash*, Nagori BP
* Lachoo Memorial College of Science & Technology (Autonomous), Jodhpur, Rajasthan-342003

ABSTRACT
Background: Attrition is a well-recognized issue of critical importance to the organizations. Lack of employees
continuity involves high cost in the induction and training of new employees. Pharmaceutical industry is facing
high rates of attrition among sales and marketing employees. Annual turnover of employees for the pharmaceutical
industry in India is 14.2%. Intentions of the pharmaceutical sales people to quit their present jobs are increasing
day-by-day and the organizations have to take serious steps to control it. Sale force attrition is a costly affair and an
economic drain to pharmaceutical organizations. Because of this severe problem, there is a need to study the
causes of attrition among sales personnel of pharmaceutical organizations.
Methods: The research study analyzes the actual causes of attrition of sales personnel of Indian pharmaceutical
and multinational pharmaceutical organizations. The questionnaire was used as a quantitative research tool to collect primary data based on Minnesota Satisfaction questionnaire instrument, using likert scale, based on five points
and it was distributed among sales personnel of different pharmaceutical organizations, for the collection of data.
Results: The objectives of this work are to study the actual reasons of attrition & its negative effects and to suggest
recommendations that could be helpful to the pharmaceutical organizations.
Introduction
Attrition can be defined as the number of employees
leaving the organization which includes both voluntary
and involuntary separation. Voluntary separation includes resignation and involuntary separation includes
permanent layoff, retirement and death. The employee
gradually reduces his/her ties with the company rather
than crib about the underlying factors causing attrition.
It is symptomatic of a much deeper malaise that cuts
deeper into the innards of organizations.
Attrition rates vary from sector and organizations to
organizations. Apart from the unavoidable ones like
resignation, retirement, death or disability, the causes
of attrition are found to be many and varied. They vary
according to the nature of business and the responsibility shouldered by the employee in the organization at
different levels.
Current Scenario of Pharma Industry
For the purpose of this study, Indian pharmaceutical
companies have been broadly classified into two categories Indian origin companies (domestic companies), some major players are Cipla, Lupin, Torrent,
Cadila, and Mankind and Multinational companies
(MNCs), some of the major players includes Merck,
Key words: Sales force, Attrition, Pharmaceutical Organizations, Intention to quit
Received 22 Dec 2013; accepted 9 Jan 2014;
*Corresponding Author: Midha Akash
* Lachoo Memorial College of Science & Technology
(Autonomous), Jodhpur, Rajasthan-342003
Email: [email protected]
Mob: +91-9414243146
Copyright 2011 Published by IJPSL. All rights reserved
Teva, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Aventis, Astra

Zenca, Ranbaxy, Pfizer etc [1].
India is rapidly becoming a global hub for other countries
to conduct pharmaceutical manufacturing and research
and Indian generic medicines today constitute nearly a
fifth of global supplies. India tops the world in exporting
generic medicines worth US $ 11 billion. Generic medicines are expected to continue to dominate the market
while patent-protected products are likely to constitute 10
per cent of the market till 2015, as per McKinsey report
[1].
Multinational companies are showing a healthy growth in
the Indian market setting a new trend. In terms of sale,
out of 25 top medicine brands in 2011, 13 brands were of
multinational organizations [1].
The Indian Pharma industry is expected to witness robust
growth due to an increasing middle-class population, improvements in medical infrastructure and the establishment of IP rights.
Attrition in Pharmaceutical Organizations
Pharmaceutical sector has highest attrition rate of around
3035 %, which is matter of grave concern and affecting
the organizations and employees. High attrition rates
have seriously affected the Indian pharmaceutical industry and human resource managers remain in constant
search of ways and means to retain their talent to best
possible extent. Given the relatively small talent pool
available in the pharmaceutical sector, compared to other
sectors, the problem is increasing to become critical to
devastating
Departure of one talented person has 5 to 10 times impact
on the organization in terms of monetary value, as every
affected organization has to initiate process of selection,
training and skill development.
With changing business environment in all over the
world, there are significant changes in the business practices of local and multinational pharmaceutical organizations in India. Since world has globalized, pharmaceutical
organizations are not looking at local markets rather trying to compete internationally. The cut throat competition
has changed the ways of operation of different organizations working in the environment.
As the competition increases, it is very troublesome for
the organizations to recruit and retain talented sales personnel and manage talent loss due to attrition. If the talented personnel leaves the organization, it will not only
effects the performance but also leaves a gap in overall
execution capability, ultimately which results in loss of
team work, productivity and social goodwill of an organization.
With attrition rates being a curse for every industry, organizations are devising innovative business models for
effective retention of talent. There are a lot of factors responsible for attrition and employers are getting increasingly conscious of the factors that can keep an employee
committed
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Newman A., et al [2]. (2012) stated that employees can
get their career success efficiently through setting their
goals, by enhancing their competencies and through discussing their career plan with their bosses. Turnover can
reduce through better organizational and manager support.
Dawley D. D., et al [3]. (2010) indicated that employees
intention to quit is significantly affected by organizational
support. Employees cant enjoy their job if they are working with tactless and inflexible manager. Studies indicate
that employee turnover increases if there is mismatch
between management and employees.
Gentry W. A., et al [4]. (2007) observed that organizational support environment is crucial for retaining the
employees. Through social exchange theory point of
view, when employees feel that their organization is supporting and concern for their welfare and career, they
may feel their emotional involvement with manager and
organization and in this return it would lead to employee
retention in the organization.
Khandekar A. and Sharma A [5], (2005) reported that it
is very important for pharmaceutical organization to keep
their employees intact, because employees turnover not
only lead to financial loss but also damage the image of
the organization. In order to reduce employee turnover,
management has to give proper attention to its employees
and do everything to retain the existing employees. Employees with longer tenure can provide significant competitive advantage for the organization in the industry.
Rogers P. and Peccoud D. J [6], (2005) stated that organizations that keep the front line staff motivated and
equip them with the right tools are most likely to enjoy
long term superior performance.
Firth L., et al [7]. (2004) reported that leaving the organization by the employees can cause severe troubles
to the organization. Meaghan, S., et al [8]. (2002)
pointed out that controlling attrition is important phenomenon and the value of employees to an organization is a very crucial element in the success of the organization
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Sales personnel attrition is a big problem currently
faced by pharmaceutical organizations, as a major part
of their revenue is lost. Analyzing the causes of sales
personnel attrition and its impact is imperative for
pharmaceutical organizations. An exploratory research
is designed, keeping in mind following objectives:
*To study the causes of attrition amongst sales personnel of Indian pharmaceutical organizations.
*To study the causes of attrition amongst sales personnel of multinational pharmaceutical organizations.
METHODOLOGY
On the basis of review of literature, various factors
were identified which may cause attrition of sales personnel of pharmaceutical organizations. The factors
which may leads to cause attrition are: Pay, Promotion,
Quality of communication, Rewards & Recognitions,
Work itself, Supervisors support, Organization support, Fringe benefits, Co-operation of co-workers, Recruitment & Selection policies and Operating conditions.
After identification of causes of attrition, a questionnaire was developed to study the opinion of sales personnel of pharmaceutical organizations about these
factors which they think are the major causes of attrition.
Sampling Design
300 sales personnel from 30 Indian and multinational
pharmaceutical organizations working at different positions like regional managers, area managers and medical sales representatives were selected as a sample for
the study. The convenience sampling technique was
used to collect the data.
Data Collection
Primary data were collected mainly by the help of
structured questionnaire, which was distributed among
the selected sample of 300 respondents in which 278
respondents given their responses, out of which 153
respondents were from Indian pharmaceutical organizations and 125 respondents were from multinational
organizations.
The respondents were asked to indicate their degree of
agreement by checking one of five response categories.
Data Analysis Techniques
Data analysis techniques used in the research includes
descriptive statistics, frequencies, and means.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
To study the causes of attrition amongst sales personnel
320
of Indian pharmaceutical and multinational organizations,
data were collected from 153 respondents from Indian
Pharma organizations and 125 respondents from multinational Pharma organizations through questionnaire.
For all 11 factors, descriptive statistic tables (Table 1 Table 11) as given below, were prepared in which responses for every question were recorded on Likert scale,
based on Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (MSQ). As
the MSQ is designed at a five-point Likert scale, the
maximum score for each item is five. The respondents
have to rate their feelings from (1) Very Dissatisfied to
(5) Very Satisfied. The midpoint for each item is a score
of (3).
To study the causes of attrition, questions were asked to
sales personnel of Indian and multinational organizations
under each factor, the mean values for each question of
each factor was calculated on the basis of respondents
selection of scale between 1 to 5 by using weighted average mean and finally by addition of all mean values of
each question, average mean values were calculated for
Indian and multinational Pharma organizations.
After study of the causes of attrition, another descriptive
statistics table (Table 12) was prepared for Indian and
multinational pharmaceutical organizations to present all
11 factors with their average mean values for ranking the
causes of attrition for Indian and multinational organizations and they are ranked in ascending order i.e. critical to
less critical.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics for Pay

Question Number
Mean value for each
question for Indian organizations personnel
Mean value for each
question for multinational
organizationspersonnel
Average mean value for
Indian organizations
personnel
multinational organizations personnel
2.31
2.18
1.94
1.95
3.38
3.36
3.06
3.00
2.098
3.206
Table 2: Descriptive statistics for Promotion

Question Number
Mean value for each question for Indian organizations personnel
Mean value for each question for multinational
organizationspersonnel
2.30
2.37
2.35
2.1
3
3.17
3.21
3.30
3.2
1

Indian organizations personnel
2.291
3.222
Table 3: Descriptive statistics for Quality of Communication

Question Number
Mean value for each question for
Average mean value for Indian organizations personnel
Average mean value for multinational organizations personnel
2.888
2.640
2.882
2.777
2.549
2.398
2.555
2.359
3.12
3.04
3.256
3.184
3.16
3.088
3.376
2.872
2.631
3.137
Table 4: Descriptive statistics for Rewards & Recognitions

Question Number
Mean value for each question for Indian
organizations personnel
Mean value for each question
for multinational organizations personnel
2.261
2.359
2.196
2.150
2.206
3.240
2.840
3.272
3.120
3.184
2.234
3.131
321
Table 5: Descriptive statistics for Fringe Benefits
Question Number
1
2.333
2
2.339
3
2.006
4
2.058
3.344
3.448
2.96
3.088
2.184
3.21
Table 6: Descriptive statistics for Operating Conditions

Question Number
Average mean value for Indian organizations
personnel
2.679
2.326
2.379
1.843
1.869
2.084
2.470
3.416
3.096
2.568
2.76
3.368
3.24
3.632
2.236
3.154
Table 7: Descriptive statistics for Work itself

Question Number
for multinational organizations
personnel
Average mean value for Indian
10
2.176
2.38
2.48
2.48
2.18
2.23
2.32
2.45
2.33
2.14
3.248
3.36
3.56
3.74
3.28
3.30
3.36
3.33
3.52
3.19
2.320
3.392
Table 8: Descriptive statistics for Co-operation of Co-workers

Question Number
Mean value for each question for multinational organizations personnel
1
2.660
2
2.372
3
2.228
4
2.503
5
2.307
3.328
2.952
2.792
3.36
2.656
2.414
3.018
Table 9: Descriptive statistics for Supervisors Support

Question Number
for multinational organizations
personnel
Average mean value for Indian
10
2.56
2.73
2.48
2.37
2.62
2.36
2.40
2.39
2.35
2.15
3.40
3.09
3.10
3.07
3.30
3.12
3.00
3.29
3.19
2.96
2.447
3.152
322
Table 10: Descriptive statistics for Recruitment and Selection Policies
Question Number
Average mean value for multinational
2.202
2.653
2.496
2.483
2.444
2.326
2.313
2.163
2.792
3.328
3.568
3.68
3.728
3.52
3.36
3.728
2.385
3.463
Table 11: Descriptive statistics for Organizational Support

Question Number
1
2.248
2
2.209
3
2.686
4
2.098
5
2.535
3.456
3.384
3.256
3.576
3.56
2.355
3.446
Table-12: Descriptive Statistics for causes of attrition amongst Sales personnel of Indian and multinational pharmaceutical organizations
S. No
Causes of attrition
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Pay
Promotion
Quality of Communication
Rewards & Recognitions
Fringe Benefits
Operating Conditions
Work itself
Co-operation of Co-workers
Supervisors Support
Recruitment & Selection Policies
Organizational Support
Indian pharmaceutical
organizations
Average
Ranking
means
2.098
1
2.291
5
2.631
11
2.234
3
2.184
2
2.236
4
2.320
6
2.414
9
2.447
10
2.385
8
2.355
7
CONCLUSION
In the Indian Pharma organizations, most of the sales
personnel have shown their dissatisfaction regarding Pay,
Fringe Benefits, Rewards & Recognitions and Operating
Conditions.
On the basis of responses of sales personnel of Indian
organizations, average mean value for pay was found to
be 2.098 and therefore it is critical amongst all the factors, hence it was ranked at no.1. In multinational organizations pay is not affecting to that much extent as indicated by average mean value which was found to be
3.206 and it was ranked at no.6.
As per the responses of sales personnel of Indian Pharma
organizations, Fringe Benefits were ranked at no. 2, as -
Multinational pharmaceutical
organizations
Average
Ranking
means
3.206
6
3.222
8
3.137
3
3.131
2
3.21
7
3.154
5
3.392
9
3.018
1
3.152
4
3.463
10
3.446
11
average mean value was observed to be 2.184. In the

multinational organizations, for Fringe Benefits, the
average mean value was found to be 3.206 and it was
ranked at no.7 as per the responses.
Rewards & Recognitions were ranked at no.3, as the
mean value observed was 2.234, as per the responses of
sales personnel of Indian Pharma organizations. In the
multinational organizations, the average mean value
was observed as 3.131 and it was ranked at no.2.
As per the responses of sales personnel of Indian
Pharma organizations, Operating conditions was
ranked at no. 4, the average mean value was observed
was 2.236 and as per the responses of multinational
Pharma organizations sales personnel average mean
value was observed to be 3.154 and ranked at no.5.
323
Sales personnel of multinational organizations, shown
their dissatisfaction regarding
Co-operation of coworkers, Rewards and Recognitions, Quality of Communication and Supervisors Support as the major causes of
attrition in their organizations. Average mean values for
all these factors were observed as 3.018, 3.131, 3.137,
3.152 and they were ranked at no.1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
As per the responses of the Indian Pharma organizations
sales personnel, the average mean values for all 11 factors
were found to be less than mid value of Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, which are ideally 3.
In order to retain the sales personnel, the Indian pharma
organizations have to offer lucrative packages and also
improve Operating Conditions.
While the multinational organizations are require to improve Co-operation of co-workers, Rewards and Recognitions, Quality of Communication and Supervisors Support for retaining their sales personnel.
REFERENCES
[1] Available from http://info.shine.com/IndustryInformation / Pharmaceuticals / 19.aspx
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supervisor support and intra-organizational network
resources on turnover intentions: A study of Chinese
employees in multinational enterprises." Personnel
Review 2012; 41(1): 56-72.
[3] Dawley D. D., Andrews M. C., and Bucklew N. S.
"Enhancing the ties that bind: Mentoring as a moderator."Career Development International 2010; 15(3):
259 278.
[4] Gentry W. A., Kuhnert K. W., Mondore S.P. and
Page, E. E. "The influence of supervisory-support
climate and unemployment rate on part-time employee retention: A multilevel analysis." Journal of
Management Development 2007; 26 (10): 1005
1022.
[5] Khandekar A., Sharma A. "Managing human resource
capabilities for sustainable competitive advantage: An
empirical analysis from Indian global organizations."
Education & Training 2005; 47(8/9): 628 639.
[6] Rogers P., D.J. Peccoud. (2005) Leading from the
front. Available from http://www.bain.com/bainweb/
publications/publications_detail.asp?
=24349&menu_url+publicatiobs_results.ahp/
[7] Firth L., Mellor D. J., Moore K. A. and Loquet C.
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quit?" Journal of Managerial Psychology 2004; 19(2):
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[8] Meaghan Stovel, Nick Bontis. Voluntary turnover:
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Cite this article as:

Midha Akash, Nagori B. Sales Force Attrition: A
Study of Indian and Multinational Pharmaceutical
Organizations. Int. J. Pharm. Sci. Lett. 2013 : 4: (1)
319-324
Source of Support: Nil.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
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Research Article

Journal homepage: http://www.ijpsl.com

Sales Force Attrition: A Study of Indian and Multinational Pharmaceutical

* Lachoo Memorial College of Science & Technology (Autonomous), Jodhpur, Rajasthan-342003

Teva, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Aventis, Astra

Table 1: Descriptive statistics for Pay

Table 2: Descriptive statistics for Promotion

Average mean value for

Table 3: Descriptive statistics for Quality of Communication

Table 4: Descriptive statistics for Rewards & Recognitions

Table 6: Descriptive statistics for Operating Conditions

Table 7: Descriptive statistics for Work itself

Table 8: Descriptive statistics for Co-operation of Co-workers

Table 9: Descriptive statistics for Supervisors Support

Table 11: Descriptive statistics for Organizational Support

average mean value was observed to be 2.184. In the

Cite this article as:

Conflict of interest: None declared.

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