Impact of ICT on Human Resources and Socio-Cultural Perspectives of Microfinance Organizations

Abstract

Microfinance is a semi-formal financing program designed to help economically and socially marginalized community to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Because of the nature of working approach, organizations intervene microfinance program are usually human resource intensive. A momentum of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the information systems of microfinance organizations has been going on even in the least developed countries. This paper looks into the impact of using ICT more particularly on different aspects of human resources of microfinance organizations. Using a comparative case study, both the positive and negative impacts of ICT to human resources and the socio-cultural perspectives of microfinance organizations has been investigated. The study finds a number of ICT mediated positive materialistic changes among the human resources but indicates a detrimental effect to the development mindset of human resources. It suggests policy makers and top managers of microfinance organizations for taking care of the matter so that microfinance remains as a development program to attain its set objectives.