The aim of this study was to investigate outcomes of approaches used to mitigate the negative impacts of HIV and AIDS at workplaces in Lesotho using Thetsane Industrial Area as a case study. Garment industries in Lesotho are faced with a serious threat due to the HIV and AIDS prevalence in the country. A huge number of the labour force is leaving firms due to increased morbidity and mortality associated with HIV and AIDS. In view of this, this study investigated approaches used in managing HIV and AIDS in the workplace. In order to optimize the accuracy of the research results, a triangulation research method was utilized. The results indicate production levels to have improved since the advent of the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA). The findings suggest ALAFA to have taken over the responsibility of HIV and AIDS prevention and management, especially in the garment industries, providing HIV and AIDS victims with all the necessary services needed to keep HIV and AIDS under control. These findings therefore suggest overdependence on ALAFA by the garment industries for HIV and AIDS management. The findings also imply that garment industries had no resources in the form of human capital specializing in the knowledge of HIV and AIDS management from the individual garment industries. Despite the fact that HIV and AIDS still spreads at an alarming rate, the larger implications of this research’s findings, especially relating to the serious challenge faced by the garment industries of losing their labour force to HIV and AIDS, is that the pandemic has lately become manageable given that there are now ARVs and ART to be used as treatment by HIV and AIDS victims. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The aim of this research project was to determine the effectiveness of DaimlerChrysler South Africa’s efforts in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The devastating impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic have already been felt at the workplace as without further successful interventions, HIV/AIDS mortality at DaimlerChrysler South Africa (DCSA) was expected to peak in 2006. Investment in HIV/AIDS programmes has been proposed as good business practice. The DCSA HIV/AIDS Workplace Programme was thus established to limit the impact and consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on its workers, their families and surrounding communities. The empirical survey, comprising a questionnaire, examined the attitude and perception of employees regarding the effectiveness of the DCSA HIV/AIDS Workplace Programme. The findings of the empirical survey corresponded with the findings of the literature survey in concluding that the DCSA HIV/AIDS Workplace Programme has been successful in effectively addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A few aspects of the Workplace Programme need attention and recommendations have been made in order to contribute to the lowering of HIV/AIDS prevalence rates at DaimlerChrysler South Africa.

Master of Public Health - MPH / Increasing HIV infection rates affect government employees as much as workers in other places. While government has responded to the evolving crisis with a number of policy documents, little is known about the implementation of such policies in government departments. This study assessed the HIV/AIDS policy in the Department of Labour and identified weakness in the implementation. The results of the study may be used by the Dept. of Labour to improve its implementation if necessary. / South Africa

The HIV and AIDS pandemic is arguably the greatest threat facing the world today. The pandemic has a far-reaching impact on society, including the workplace. The effect in the workplace is observed in various areas including a reduction in certain skills levels, mortality and declining job performance of employees living with HIV or AIDS. In addition, the fear of discrimination and stigmatisation prevents infected employees from disclosing their HIV status, thus driving the pandemic underground. Despite the potential negative impact that is looming, many employers still do not have any workplace support programmes in place to manage HIV and AIDS in their organisations. However, some employers have implemented workplace support programmes. This research thus explored the influence of workplace support programmes on the job performance of employees that were living with HIV or AIDS. The findings suggest that job performance is positively influenced where workplace support programmes have been implemented. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

No abstract available / Jurisprudence / LL.M.

The purpose of this research was to explore HIV/AIDS stigma in the workplace, with a special focus on the stigmatised. The sample consisted of 10 HIV/AIDS positive employees. A qualitative interview schedule was designed. The interview guide was used to facilitate one-on-one interviews with each participant. An analysis of the data revealed that the majority of the participants were shunned by family, friends and partners. Others were too ashamed or afraid to reveal their positive status. The majority of the participants did not feel comfortable revealing their positive status to their line managers and to their co-workers. All participants felt that others viewed people living with HIV/AIDS as dirty and unclean and many had been exposed to stigmatising behaviours towards them due to their HIV/AIDS positive status. As a coping mechanism, most participants noted that they would walk away if stigmatised against. Recommendations were made to address HIV/AIDS stigma in the workplace. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M. A. (Industrial and Organisation Psychology)

The purpose of the research was to explore the challenges faced by both employer and employee when the later undergoes active cancer treatment from a systemic perspective. A qualitative research was conducted using a case study of six sessions with both employer and employee. The study revealed that the employer and employee defined their relationship and boundaries as a system. The research project made a great impact on the researchers’ map regarding cancer or any other symptom, the person with cancer and the employer. In the researcher’s old map, before the research project, cancer implied a very threatening disease which rendered both the employer and the employee helpless and powerless. Through the research project the researcher discovered the significance of not having preconceived ideas as according to this study both the employer and employee had the freedom to punctuate their challenges in relation to the latter undergoing active treatment. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology study was to explore and describe the meaning employees attribute to the lived experiences of returning to work after cancer treatment. Semi-structured interviews were held with eight participants and a thematic data analysis method was used. The results indicate that cancer survivors experience various challenges that make it difficult to function as they did before the diagnosis when they return to work. A critical hermeneutical reflection against the literature followed the structural analysis and resulted in a contextual framework that incorporated the individual and organisational perspective on the various influences involved in supporting cancer survivors to maintain their wellbeing when they return to work. Four phases, repression, comprehension, activation and reintegration, were identified when they tried to cope/adjust on their return to work. The corresponding forms of organisational support they expected through these phases were labelled motivation, information, navigation and stabilisation. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com.

Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / HIV/AIDS has emerged as one of the biggest epidemics in modern human history, and is perhaps the most researched and written about epidemic. Southern Africa is at the epicentre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, with almost one third of the world’s HIVpositive population living here. HIV is known to affect predominantly vulnerable populations; thus it is surprising that persons with disabilities have been largely overlooked. Little is known about how HIV/AIDS affects persons with disabilities in South Africa. This dissertation, therefore, aims to explore the extent to which organizations and schools working with persons with disabilities are dealing with HIV/AIDS, and how they are dealing with it. The study made use of an integration of quantitative and qualitative research methods. An existing survey questionnaire used in the World Bank/Yale University Global Survey on HIV/AIDS and Disability was used, with permission, as the survey instrument in a national survey of disability organizations and special needs (LSEN) schools in South Africa. The survey was distributed by post and email to 601 organizations and schools across the country, in all nine provinces. Various contacts and postings of the survey were made to organizations and schools, in an attempt to improve response rates. The response rate from national disability organizations was 57%, while the response rate for regional and local organizations and schools was very poor, with an overall response rate of 18%. The sample, however, was representative of the population. The results of the survey indicate a high level of concern about HIV/AIDS as a risk for persons with disabilities. The majority of organizations and schools were involved in providing HIV prevention education. However, most organizations and schools felt that persons with disabilities were excluded from general HIV prevention campaigns, and were thus receiving less information. A second study, using qualitative research methods, used case studies of three organizations/schools to explore more in-depth staff difficulties, challenges and particularly anxieties related to dealing with sex, sexuality and HIV among persons with disabilities. The case studies were analysed from a psychosocial framework, using social constructionist theory with psychoanalytic theory, to explore how social discourses about HIV and disabilities are internalized by staff. It is theorized that people draw on particular social discourses, in this case about HIV and disability, as a defence against threats to the self. Texts were analysed using discourse analysis to identify social discourses. A further analytic layer used psychoanalytic theory to identify unconscious communication of emotions and defence mechanisms. The case studies found that staff have considerable anxiety with regards raising issues of sex, sexuality and HIV with persons with disabilities. Staff from all three organizations were varyingly anxious about needing to protect the people they work with from harm. Disabled people were constructed as innocent, vulnerable, and needing protection. In other cases disabled people were constructed as deviant and their behaviour needing to be controlled. The use of an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods is useful, in allowing to explore more in-depth the lived experience of research participants. While the survey indicated that organizations were providing HIV prevention education, the case studies revealed much anxiety about this, and in some cases education was partly avoided. The results also suggest that HIV prevention education may be used in a way to control and restrict disabled people’s sexual expression, using a demonizing discourse about sex as dangerous and in some circumstances immoral. This may be done in an absence of a discourse of pleasure, where disabled people may be empowered to have fulfilling sexual lives. The study also highlights sexual abuse and rape of persons with disabilities as a serious issue. The dissertation ends with recommendations for further research, including exploring the experience of disabled people themselves, and the need to address the silence around sexual abuse and rape of persons with disabilities.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In South Africa more people are living with AIDS than in any other country in the world. It is now evident that HIV/AIDS has developed into a pandemic that not only affects the health of individuals, but does expand to households, communities and the nation. The stigma of HIV/AIDS is most likely the single most important reason why people, organisations and the government tend to shy away from the problem. The prime aim of business is to make money, but the fact that AIDS affects people at the peak of their productive years when they would normally not require medical attention, will impact negatively on the organisation's bottom line results. Apart from government, business is the only group that has the capacity and resources to successfully implement strategies in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This study provides a theoretical introduction to HIV and AIDS but also indicates that small to medium size organisations are slow to react to the threat that HIV and AIDS will have to their business and also the country. The study shows that large organisations have definitely been successful in their fight against the disease. The study concludes that knowing the prevalence rate of HIV in a organisation and adapting the strategy accordingly is essential for long term sustainability of the organisation. CISCO was selected as the case study to substantiate the above-mentioned opinions and conclusions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In Suid Afrika woon daar meer mense met VIGS as enige in enige ander land in die wereld. Dit is tans duidelik dat MIV/VIGS ontwikkel het in 'n pandemie wat nie net die gesondheid van individue raak nie, maar wat ook uitkring na huishoudings, gemeenskappe en die nasie. Die stigma van MIV/VIGS is heel waarskynlik die grootste enkele rede waarom organisasies en die regering wegskram van die probleem. Die hoofdoel van 'n besigheid is om wins te maak, maar die feit dat VIGS mense tydens die toppunt van hulle produktiewe jare affekteer wanneer hulle normaalweg geen mediese versorging sou benodig nie, gaan 'n negatiewe effek op organisasies se winsgewendheid hê. Behalwe vir die regering is privaat besighede die enigste groep wat beskik oor die kapasiteit en hulpbronne om strategiee te implimenteer wat suksesvol sal wees in die stryd teen MIV en VIGS. Hierdie studie gee 'n teoretiese inleiding oor MIV en VIGS. Dit dui ook daarop dat klein tot medium grootte organisasies stadig reageer op die bedreiging wat MIV en VIGS vir hul besigheid en die land kan inhou. Die studie toon dat groter organisasies meer sukses behaal in hulle stryd teen die siekte. Die studie bevind dat dit vir die volhoubaarheid van 'n organisasie belangrik is om te weet wat die voorkoms syfers van MIV in die organisasie is en die strategie ten opsigte van MIV en VIGS dienooreenkomstig aan te pas. CISCO is as 'n gevallestudie gebruik om bogenoemde waarnemings en aanbevelings te staaf.