| dc.description.abstract | Organisations exist in a complex commercial, economic, political,
teclmological, cultural and social environment. This environment is
turbulent and it is more complex to some organisations than others. The
success of every organisation is determined by its responsiveness to the
environment. To be able to retain competitive advantage, organisations need
to examine their environment both internal and external and respond
accordingly.
HIV/AIDS is one of the significant recent developments in the environment.
Organisations are therefore expected to respond to the impact of HIV /AIDS.
This study set out to investigate the response of companies to the pandemic.
The objective of this study was to establish and analyse the responses that
have been put in place to counter the devastating impacts of AIDS in
organisations.
The study focused on large private manufacturing companies operating in
Nairobi, Kenya. The research design used was a cross sectional survey. The
population consisted of 250 companies and a sample size of 100 was used
for this study. Data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire
administered through drop and pick method and respondents were mainly
personnel managers and CEOs. Data was analyzed using descriptive
statistics. Frequencies and percentages were used to summarize and present
collected data.
The study revealed that 86% of firms have responded to AIDS crisis. Some
of the actions taken by businesses include promoting prevention and
education, improving workplace policies to ensure rights for employees such
as access to health care and counseling. The limitations were mainly on data
collection, which was constrained by the attitude of some organisations
owing to confidentiality of the subject as well as budget and time.
Though some businesses have responded to the AIDS crisis, many more are
at early stages in establishing HIV/AIDS workplace prevention programmes
or developing appropriate policies. Today the Kenyan government has not
been actively involved in developing legal and regulatory guidelines for the
business sector.
As a recommendation, a well crafted approach of public and private sector
collaboration in workplace HIV/AIDS prevention and policy planning
promises to address Kenya's AIDS crisis in a manner that will yield human,
socioeconomic development, and private sector benefits in future. | en |
