“The mediating role of employee ambidexterity and work engagement for talent management and medical representatives’ performance in Indonesian pharmaceutical companies”

The business success of pharmaceutical companies in achieving sales targets amid increasingly fierce market competition is highly dependent on the presence of a strong and efficient marketing team. This study aims to explore the impact of talent management on medical representatives’ performance in Indonesia, as well as to analyze the mediation role of employee ambidexterity and work engagement. This study used a quantitative approach involving 167 medical representatives as a sample. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed online and offline. The paper used structural equation modeling-partial least squares (SEM-PLS) for data analysis. The study’s results partially show that talent management, employee ambidexterity, and work engagement can significantly increase medical representatives’ performance (< 0.05). Furthermore, talent management significantly increases employee ambidexterity and work engagement (< 0.05). In addition, an indirect effect was found, where talent management can significantly improve medical representatives’ performance mediated by employee ambidexterity and work engagement (< 0.05). Employee ambidexterity can significantly increase medical representatives’ performance mediated by work engagement (< 0.05). These findings prove that talent management, employee ambidexterity, and work engagement are essential to improve medical representatives’ performance. In addition, these results also can develop more efficient marketing and human resource management strategies in the pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia.


INTRODUCTION
Companies in the pharmaceutical sector must constantly evolve to meet changing market needs due to changing consumption patterns, technological advances, and increasing customer demands.To carry out the functions of marketing, promotion, and sales in pharmaceutical companies, a company requires a sales force called a "medical representative."Medical representatives are professional employees responsible for promoting the company's products to medical personnel such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other health workers, as well as bridging information between pharmaceutical companies and medical personnel.
The decline in the performance of medical representatives is the main problem faced by pharmaceutical companies, which results in the company's product sales failing to reach the sales target every month.This can be due to several factors, such as a lack of understanding of the product, lack of innovation and creativity, lack of engagement with work, or lack of knowledge about the latest market trends.Improper management of talent management can result in inefficient use of human resources.If the individual potential is utilized correctly, this can help the medical representatives' performance and the team.The pharmaceutical industry, which continues to change rapidly, requires medical representatives to adapt to market and technological changes, which are becoming increasingly important.Medical representatives with poor work engagement are unproductive and unmotivated.Many things, including a lack of managerial support, career development, and rewards, can cause low engagement.
To face the business challenges of a competitive pharmaceutical company, management should prioritize medical representatives' performance to remain committed to the company.However, this fundamental problem has yet to receive optimal attention from top management, and it still needs to be fully understood how a decrease in medical representatives' performance in the marketing team can hurt overall company performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
Medical representatives' performance in the pharmaceutical sector refers to the outcomes and successes attained by medical representatives in selling goods or services to clients (Darwish et al., 2020;Shahbaz et al., 2020).Ilyas et al. (2023) confirmed that the medical representative's performance is essential for promoting, marketing, and developing customer relationships and for the company's sales and growth objectives.
According to earlier research, factors such as employee ambidexterity (Amenuvor et al., 2023), work engagement (Asghar et al., 2020), and talent management (Graham et al., 2023)  To achieve more profound knowledge about talent management and medical representatives' performance, this study aims to identify and analyze the influence of talent management on performance mediated by employee ambidexterity and work engagement pf medical representatives of pharmaceutical companies in Indonesia.This study will provide a more comprehensive view and contribute to developing a more effective talent management strategy for increasing sales performance in the pharmaceutical industry.Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework with hypothesized relationships.
Utilizing the data presented in Figure 1, this study seeks to investigate the influence of talent management on medical representatives' performance by considering the mediating role of employee ambidexterity and work engagement in Indonesia.
Hence, this study forms these hypotheses:

METHODS
In this study, survey methods are used as a component of a quantitative approach.It is challenging to count the population because survey research is typically conducted on big groups.In or-  Structural equation modeling (SEM) and partial least squares (PLS) were used for quantitative data analysis.The aim of using SEM-PLS is to understand and predict complex relationships between variables and indicators, and there are several reasons for choosing SEM-PLS: 1. Limited or complex data: PLS can handle multicolinearity problems and small samples compared to the number of variables.
3. Latent variables are challenging to measure directly and can only be measured through indicators or measuring variables.
4. The reliability and validity of the construction are the primary concerns, so PLS can be used as it can fix the problem.
5. It is easy to handle mediator variables in model analysis, so it is suitable for use if research involves such relationships.
Understanding the characteristics of the sampled population requires knowledge of the demographics of the respondents (Table 1).It also explains how different demographic groups may react differently or produce different results.for other factors, this influence remained high at 76.4%.Work engagement impacts 63% of the variation in MR performance.After adjusting for other variables, this effect was reduced slightly to 62.5%.Medical representatives' performance, the observed variable, was explained by 43.4% of the model tested.After adjustment, the model's ability to explain variations in the performance of medical representatives decreased slightly to 42.4%.These results indicate that employee ambidexterity and work engagement significantly impact medical representatives' performance.Although the impact of work engagement is smaller than that of employee ambidexterity, both still play a significant role in explaining variations in medical representatives' performance.
Then, the hypotheses are tested through the bootstrap method by calculating 5000 samples (Figure 2).
The inter-constructional linkages in Figure 2 illustrate how the structural components of structural models relate to and interact with one another.Employee ambidexterity impacted the medical representative's performance, with an original sample value of 0.525 compared to the talent management and work engagement factors.Employee ambidexterity and work engagement act as partial mediator variables because, in its entirety, independent variables are capable of directly influencing dependent variables without passing through or involving mediator variables.The most significant contribution from these findings is the relationship between employee ambidexterity and medical representatives' performance.

DISCUSSION
Medical representatives' performance and talent management techniques have a good and significant association.Organizations with efficient talent identification and selection procedures perform well (Attamah et al., 2023).It has to do with how well a person can relate to others, comprehend client demands, and convey to customers the value of a product.There is a favorable correlation between talent management and employee performance, agreeing with Alruwaili (2018), Al-Hussaini et al. (2019), and Efendi (2021).Talented medical representatives usually build a level of product knowledge, engage in skill development, have superior communication skills, and have practical presentation skills.H2 findings highlight the need for businesses to prioritize talent management and ensure that it is incorporated into staff development plans to produce medical representatives who can learn about and take advantage of their field of work.According to Latukha et al. (2022), talent management significantly impacts how ambidexterity is shaped in employees and the significance of balancing efficiency and innovation in a busi-ness.Employees who experience effective talent management become more adaptable and creative while maintaining consistency and efficiency in everyday activities and provide a combination of various skills to form employee ambidexterity.
Talent management practices can increase work engagement (H3) by providing clear career development opportunities, company and leadership support, and acknowledging their contribution to improving the quality of medical representatives' work.This finding aligns with Abdorreza and Wan Hooi (2015) and Hassanein and Özgit (2022).Work engagement is crucial to meeting sales targets and preserving client connections, and the pharmaceutical sector should focus on talent management to improve work engagement.Companies need effective talent management strategies, such as recruiting qualified medical representatives, employee development, supportive leadership approaches, collaborative facilitation, recognition of achievements, and precise career planning, so medical representatives feel appreciated and motivated to be emotionally active in the job.
According to this study, there is an association between medical representatives' performance and employee ambidexterity (H4).Combining exploration and exploitation in one's profession makes a medical representative more successful in carrying out sales duties, cultivating client connections, and hitting sales targets.The results support Ijigu et al. (2022) for businesses to see employee ambidexterity as crucial to achieving exceptional and long-lasting performance in a constantly changing environment.With an employee's ambidexterity, a medical representative can play an active role in exploitation and exploration activities to improve marketing performance.Ambidexterity among employees may improve job satisfaction (H5).According to Ajayi et al. (2017) and Ajayi and Morton (2013), employee ambidexterity benefits work engagement.Medical representatives who integrate exploration and exploitation into their work tend to have higher work engagement.A workplace that welcomes diversity, offers challenging and innovative work opportunities, and supports exploration and exploitation can benefit medical representatives.Employee ambidexterity affects work engagement because of the characteristics and level of engagement seen from three aspects: 1. Variations and challenges: Medical representatives involved in ambidexterity face various variations and challenges as they work on their duties.These variations and challenges can make the job more challenging and exciting, which means they can improve the work environment.
2. Sense of mastery: Feeling they have the skills and ability to complete various tasks can increase their confidence and engagement in the job.

CONCLUSION
This study explores the impact of talent management on medical representatives' performances' mediated by employee ambidexterity and work engagement in pharmaceutical companies in Indonesia.This study is the first comprehensive attempt to analyze the performance of medical representatives, especially in pharmaceutical companies.The results of data analysis using SEM-PLS show the feasibility of the model in analyzing predictors that can influence the medical representatives' performance in pharmaceutical companies.These findings have given pharmaceutical companies direction and guidance in managing medical representatives.
The findings have shown that talent management, employee ambidexterity, and work engagement significantly influence the performance of employees.Talent management has a significant impact on employee ambidexterity and work engagement, and employee ambidexterity has a significant influence on work engagement.Then, indirect effects were obtained, indicating that talent management significantly influences medical representatives' performance through mediated work engagement and employee ambidexterity and that talent management positively influences work engagement through mediated employee ambidexterity.Employee ambidexterity significantly influences medical representatives' performance, mediated by work engagement.
The findings of this study can serve as a practical guide for pharmaceutical companies or similar companies in managing medical representatives.Companies can consider implementing talent management practices to increase employee ambidexterity and work engagement, hoping to increase sales.These findings can also influence company policies regarding employee recruitment, training, and development.For the academic world, this paper can inspire further research in the exact or related domains.
This study has several limitations, including the inability to reach all medical representatives in Indonesia, but efforts have been made to represent the population in Indonesia.Time and resource limitations may limit the scope of research.This may mean broader or more in-depth analysis cannot be carried out.To understand how talent management strategies work in pharmaceutical companies in various regions of Indonesia, it is essential to consider comparative study methods in future research.Therefore, future researchers can dig deeper into certain aspects not identified in this study, such as organizational ambidexterity, innovative work behavior, humility leadership, and other behaviors that can be applied to companies.

Table 1 .
Demographic profile of the respondents

Table 2 .
Construct reliability analysis results

Table 3 .
Path coefficients between the variables (direct and indirect effects)