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Concise and effective business English communication underpins successful organisations. During the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) much of the working day is spent in some form of communication, usually e-mails. This paper examines the effectiveness of English communication between integral parts of a business operation during the 4IR. A mixed methods approach utilising a non-experimental design was used to investigate effective business communication using e-mails in English in a medium sized organisation in South Africa. A questionnaire consisting of 10 Likert type scale questions and 5 open ended questions was used. Purposive sampling was utilised as the population was small (150 employees, final sample 55) thus results cannot be generalised. Certain barriers to communication were identified which were considered important. For instance, many staff members were second language English speakers and often misunderstand e-mails. As a result, they reported that they felt frustrated in their working life and were demotivated. It was concluded that many e-mails were challenging to staff and needed to be written in everyday English not business language. The authors recommended that workshops and initial training in business language skills when people enter the organisation should be undertaken. Human Resources could also audit the use of appropriate English.

This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of four communication programs on promoting HIV testing behavior among sexually active individuals in South Africa. The four programs, implemented by Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, are aimed to promote HIV prevention behaviors, as well as gender-based violence prevention, tuberculosis screening and treatment, and reduction of alcohol consumption. Launched between 2009 and 2010, they all promoted HIV testing. Data came from the population-based Third National AIDS Communication Survey 2012; 6004 men and women who had sex within the last 12 months were included in the analysis. Multiple causal attribution analysis is used to justify causal reference and estimate the impact of communication programs. Findings indicate significant direct and indirect effects of the programs on HIV testing behavior. Indirect effects worked through increasing one's likelihood of perceiving that their friends were tested and the probability of talking about HIV testing with sex partners and friends, which in turn increased the likelihood of HIV testing. Findings suggest multiple angles from which communication programs can promote HIV testing. The study also demonstrates the use of multiple statistical techniques for causal attribution in a post-only design, where randomization is not possible.

In many sub-Saharan African countries, a high proportion of people living with HIV are in long-term serodiscordant relationships. This paper explores how HIV serodiscordance shapes communication among couples in long-term HIV-serodiscordant relationships. A total of 36 couples were purposively recruited through healthcare providers and civil society organisations in South Africa (26) and Tanzania (10). We explored couples' portrayal of living in a serodiscordant relationship by conducting semi-structured interviews with each partner separately, followed by a joint interview with both partners. Using an adaptation of Persson's model on sero-silence and sero-sharing, we categorised coping style as 'sero-silent' if partners reported that they did not talk much with each other about issues related to their serodiscordant status or as 'sero-sharing' if they portrayed HIV as being an issue which they dealt with together. Some couples exhibited features of both coping styles and, at times, partners differed in their ways of coping.

HIV/AIDS has associated cultural and social meanings which shape communication. The disease is closely linked to the concepts of life and death. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has brought hope and life, but its success is heavily dependent on strict adherence. Research has shown that patients and health professionals often find it difficult to talk about these topics. However, there is little research available which focuses on health professionals' and patients' discussion of ART. This paper thus presents some exploratory discussion of extracts from pharmacy interactions in an HIV context which illustrate how pharmacists talk about antiretrovirals (ARVs) with patients with particular reference to the concepts of life and death. Data are taken from 26 video pharmacist-patient interactions recorded in a South African HIV/AIDS pharmacy. A hybrid qualitative analytic approach enabled identification of three types of references to ART, including the need to take ART "for the rest of your life", ART as "saving your life" and ART as "making you better". Explicit references to death were infrequent. These references were often emphatic and there are several potential reasons for this. The pharmacists' communication appears to be influenced by the urgency of the disease, a desire to give patients hope and a need to "normalise" discussions of death and HIV. The importance of ensuring understanding of ARV dosage instructions and discouraging patients from seeking traditional healing also appears to affect communication. The disease, societal and cultural contexts are thus shown to be significant influences which shape discussions of ART. This study has a number of practical implications, which are discussed.

Engaging men in work towards gender equality is a critical aspect of gender and development. However, there are few documented grassroots-level approaches to undertaking such work. This paper argues that context specific stresses on local constructions of masculinity, such as unemployment, poverty and high HIV prevalence, may provide useful entry points for work with men towards gender equality. While these stresses may act to undermine men's ability to 'achieve' the requirements of traditional constructions of masculinity, particularly the role of men as providers, they simultaneously create spaces for change. In this research, land-use provided a basis from which to engage with a group of older men (45-75 years) around a range of issues, including HIV and AIDS and health. Increases in levels of communication around HIV, household resources and health are used as indicative of the men's moves towards gender-equal behaviour. The paper argues that this was achieved by supporting positive aspects of traditional masculine identities, particularly the role of men as breadwinners, in a social and economic context where these roles are threatened or placed under pressure, while simultaneously working around 'sensitive' issues.