How to integrate microfinance loan officers in profit- and socially-oriented corporate cultures? An overview.

The microfinance sector, led at the origins only by non-profit organizations, is nowadays also attracting financial institutions and commercial banks which view there a new profitable market. Therefore, microfinance institutions are more and more constrained to fulfill a double mission: they must reach social objectives while achieving the financial objective of sustainability. We argue that these multiple corporate cultures can constitute a challenge for employees of those organizations. Particularly, loan officers, who represent the key link between the client and the microfinance institution, can be highly affected by the tensions that can appear when playing the double role of counselor and of debt collector, respectively socially- and profit-oriented.

Loan officers play a significant role in microfinance. According to Morduch (2004), credit officers that microfinance institutions recruit and the way to manage them can have an impact on financial and social performances. More precisely, as reported by Dixon et al. (2007, p.49), they have a direct impact on 'repayment performance, client empowerment, client outreach and other organizational dynamics'. If loan officers are unable to fulfill their mission, 'the microfinance also fails with them' (Sarker, 2013, p.84). Isaia (2005) and Matsuwaka (2010) add that they are fundamental in delivering services to the poor because they represent a 'key link' between microfinance institutions and clients.

Although different academic studies emphasize the importance of credit officers in delivering financial services to the poor, their effective role and the best way to treat them remain neglected in the literature (Ahmad, 2000; Goetz, 2001; Dixon et al., 2007; Kar, 2013). It is a crucial issue for a microfinance institution to attract and retain loan officers who are qualified (Sarker, 2013), efficient and who develop interests in adequacy with the culture and mission of the organization. Consequently, it can be relevant to focus on the different human resources management practices that best suit this kind of employees.

The aim of this paper is to discuss how to integrate loan officers in the culture of the microfinance institution by giving an overview of the different studies on this under-researched area.