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Organizing for Social Change Within Concertive Control Systems: Member Identification, Empowerment, and the Masking of Discipline Michael J. Papa, Mohammad A. Auwal, and Arvind Singhal The Grameen (“rural”) Bank organizes grassroots micro-enterprises for productive self- employment and social change among the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh. It provides collatéral-free loans and various social services for the poor, but maintains a 99 percent loan recovery rate. Many of the bank’s more than two million members, 94 percent of whom are women, attribute their present well-being to its ameliorative qualities. Using the theory of concertive control, we gained insight into why members and workers identify so strongly witl the Grameen, how participation within this organization offers opportunities for empower- ment, and how control systems operative within the bank account for its success. This theory also enabled us to examine how member and worker identification with the Grameen influences their evaluation of the disciplinary techniques that are part of the system. By examining the Grameen’s organizational processes in terms of the theory of concertive control, we identify some of the paradoxes associated with democratic practices in organizations, and we draw insights about theory and praxis in organizing for social change. Key words: Grameen Bank, Organizational identification, Worker Empowerment Sree the end of World War TI, scholars and practitioners have proposed, critiqued, or rejected a potpourri of alternative development mechanisms to solve the reconstruction problems of subaltern societies (Adams, 1990; Banuri, 1990a, 1990b; Brundtland, 1987; Chambers, 1983, 1986; Freire, 1970/1987; Haque, 1989; Rogers, 1976; Sardar, 1992a, 1992b, 1993). Of these, the organization of small-scale participatory micro-enterprises for grassroots self-employment and self- development has received much attention by members of the development commu- nity.! Over the past twenty years, the Grameen (“rural”) Bank in Bangladesh has developed an approach to development organizing that has received acclaim worldwide. In fact, some of the Grameen Bank’s projects have been hailed as exemplars of grassroots development (Auwal, 1994a; Auwal & Singhal, 1992; Food and Agricultural Association [FAO], 1987; Fuglesang & Chandler, 1993; Hossain, 1988; 1993; Rahman, 1988). The Grameen Bank (henceforth, abbreviated as Grameen) offers an innovative approach to development organizing for, of, and by the poor (see, e.g., Auwal, in press). Grameen enables the poor, landless, and mostly illiterate people of rural Bangladesh to assist themselves, by extending them small loans, Joan utilization training, and various social services (Papa, Auwal, & Singhal, 1995). Its clients use the loans to undertake myriad microenterprises from which they earn enough income to both repay the loan in a timely manner and, thereby, alleviate their poverty. The Grameen Bank extends loans without requiring any material collateral Michael J. Papa and Aroind Singhal are Associate Professors in the School of Interpersonal Communication at Ohio University and Mohammad A. Auwal is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University at Los Angeles. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 1995. The authors would like to thank Professors James Barker, George Cheney, David Descuiner, Sue DeWine, Judith Yaross Lee, Raymie McKerrow, and Dan Modaff for their helpful comments on preliminary drafts of this paper. COMMUNICATION MONOGRAPHS, Volume 64, September 1997 
