The professional services business sector's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic

Abstract

Any company operating in the developing world must view Aids as a threat and have response mechanisms in place (Rosen, Simon, Vincent, MacLeod, Fox and Thea, 2003). The objective of this research was to discover how South African professional services companies are responding to HIV/Aids. The research further sought to confirm whether the response of the professional services sector can be considered ‘rational’ or ‘reasonable.’ Twenty interviews were undertaken across professional services companies to understand how the sector is responding to HIV/Aids from the perspective of their employee base, client base and surrounding communities. The findings showed that most professional services companies have neither felt nor measured the impact of HIV/Aids on their business. Most companies have implemented some sort of measure to respond to HIV/Aids internally, even if only a policy to safeguard them. Some companies view HIV/Aids as an opportunity, in that it enables the provision of additional products and services to clients. More than half of the companies interviewed are contributing to HIV/Aids causes outside of their workplace. As a result of this study, a model has been developed to classify companies according to their response to HIV/Aids. Based on the classification, companies surveyed fell into one of 4 types: shrew, responsible, uninformed or saviour. Twelve companies fell within the ‘shrew’ category, indicating a primarily rational response to HIV/Aids.