Factors hindering the adoption of HIV/AIDS workplace policies: evidence from private sector companies in Malawi

Abstract

Private sector companies have a role to play in addressing HIV/AIDS in Africa. This is because the epidemic has a disproportionate effect on the most productive segment of the workforce. However, in Africa many companies are yet to acknowledge and respond to HIV/AIDS as workplace issue. Therefore, there is a merit in a systematic investigation of why some companies are reluctant to adopt a formal HIV/AIDS workplace policy. This paper sought to fill this gap in the literature. Using a random sample of 152 private companies in Malawi, the paper investigated managerial perspective on the internal and external variables that relate to the non-adoption of HIV/AIDS workplace policy. The findings revealed that internal factors rather than external variables provide better explanatory power as to why some organizations do not adopt the policy. The implications of the findings have been discussed within the context of resource-based, resource dependence and institutional theories, as well as the current limitations in organizational innovation literature and the role of human resource practitioners in African organizations.

Keywords:

• adoption of HRM innovation
• HIV/AIDS in the workplace
• HRM in Africa
• workplace policy