Corporate policy on HIV/AIDS intervention : a policy analysis.

Abstract

This study is concerned with corporate policy on IllV/AIDS. This was investigated by speaking to key-informants from fifteen enterprises in KwaZulu Natal. They were asked about their policies and programmes and what they had put in place to combat this epidemic. The rational choice model was used as a framework for analysis ofthe policies. This model is discussed in the first part ofthe study and was chosen as it seems to reflect the dominant policy outlook in South Africa and may shape the way that organisations .respond. The second part of the project is the report and discussion of the findings. It is a presentation ofthe responses given by the key informants regarding their perceptions and understanding of the problem of IllV/AIDS as well as the policies .of their companies regarding the same. Mostofthe companies in the study did not have policies specific to. IDV/AIDS. Some had general guidelines and treated HIV/AIDS as any major illness. There seemed to be denial, especially among the management, of the seriousness of the disease despite evidence ofits significant impact within the various organisations. There were few to no resources set aside formv/AIDS programmes and interventions and this seems important in defining the IllV/AIDS problem as one of the future rather than the present In the third part of this project, the theoretical framework and the findings were linked. There was an attempt to answer the question ofhow rational the policy process is within the companies in the study and .whether the responses of these organisations can be understood in the context ofthe rational choice model. It seems that this model does aid in understanding of the policy process when there is a realisation· that it interacts with other human mctors to create what we observe.