Authors - Vishnu Vinekar Abstract - This study focuses on employee motivation to use information systems to improve impacts of nonprofits in developing countries. The Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank in Bangladesh pioneered microfinance to reduce poverty in developing countries. However, microfinance organizations in developing countries suffer from poor business processes6 resulting in very high interest rates on loans charged to the poor. In this study, we analyze the motivation of employees of a nonprofit microfinance organization toward information system to ameliorate these problems. To do this we build on Vroom’s (1964) theory of work motivation, which includes three constructs: valence, expectancy, and instrumentality. We hypothesize that employees of NGOs in developing countries will not only have high valence for individual-level outcomes; they will also have strong valence for both their organization and their community. However, we also hypothesize that in developing countries, employees have adequate instrumentality or expectancy regarding the use of information systems in achieving these outcomes. We test these hypotheses empirically and find support that these employees do have a strong valence for both organizational as well as community outcomes. However, despite the high valence, instrumentality and expectancy remain low. We use these to make suggestions to improve motivation for implementing information systems to improve microfinance objectives.
