An Investigation into the Effects of the Work Environment / Occupation on Hiv Related Stigma: A Case of Service Staff in Grahamstown: Eastern Cape, South Africa

Purpose - This paper investigates whether one's occupation influences one's attitude toward people with HIV/AIDS and suggests ways to counter HIV-related stigma in different work settings. Two samples comprising workers in different environments and occupations with contrasting personalities were chosen. Thus, security guards (authoritarian types) and catering workers (social types) were included. Research design, data, and methodology - The sample comprised246 service staff from the Rhodes University Catering Division and the Hi-Tec Security company, both in Grahamstown, South Africa, a small Eastern Cape province town. All employees at these organizations during the survey were eligible to participate. Results -The security sample displays significantly higher personal stigma scores than the catering sample, according to the Visser personal stigma scale (mean scores of 4.01 and 1.37, respectively; t=10.30, df=244, p=0.00). Similar results were found using Visser subscales. Conclusions - This study shows that occupation is a strong predictor of HIV-related stigma in the workplace, suggesting that workplace settings, by attracting particular personalities and influencing workers, may shape attitudes towards those who are HIV positive.