To and Fro the Bosporus: Exploring the role of Istanbul’s Urban Structure as a Career Boundary

Arman, Gamze

Abstract

Contemporary careers are characterized by multiple boundaries that facilitate and/or hinder career development for individuals (Rodrigues & Guest, 2010). Research on understanding the nature and impact career boundaries has been rather slow since Gunz, Evans and Jalland’s (2000) seminal work. Recent findings show how labor market-related (e.g., availability of opportunities gender discrimination) and personal (e.g., self-esteem) contextual factors may act as career boundaries (e.g., Ituma & Simpson, 2009; Okay-Somerville & Scholarios, 2014). Career boundaries beyond these contexts have received less scholarly attention. One such boundary is that of urban structure of cities which has implications for, among other things, the individual’s preference for housing and job choice decisions and, thereby on career progression.
The present study explores the extent to which inter-continental commuting within Istanbul’s unique, over-agglomerate urban structure represents a career boundary that influences careers. Building on Gunz et al’s (2000) notions of career boundaries and Mayrhofer, Meyer and Steyrer’s (2007) framework for contextualizing individual career pattern, the key research question addressed by this research is: what constraints and opportunities does Istanbul’s unique urban structure introduce with implications professionals’ for job choices and career progression? In contribution to careers theory, this research provides a multidisciplinary analysis (combining careers theory with urban studies) on how the city forms part of the context of work (Mayrhofer et al., 2007) and provides not only the institutional and economic, but also the spatial environment within which individuals careers evolve.

The city as the context of work
The context of work refers to the institutional and economic environment within which careers evolve, e.g., the state of the labor market (Mayrhofer et al., 2007). In this research, by building on urban studies and job choice literature, we argue that the geographical distribution of employment and housing opportunities in a city form the spatial environment within which careers evolve and constitute the context of work.
Housing for different types of workers is argued to be formed in different zones around the central business district (CBD) in a city (Burgess, 1935). From an urban location theory perspective, a trade-off exists between proximity to work and housing prices within a city (Alonso, 1964); housing nearer the CBD may help save on commuting costs but will be more expansive to rent/buy due to high demand. Vocational psychology research shows that geographic location to be one of the key dimensions in job and organizational attraction (Carless & Imber, 2007) and the most important reason for rejecting job offers (Turban, Eyring, & Campion, 1993). We argue in this paper that geographical proximity and the ease with which one can access work are important contextual factors impacting job choice decisions.
Istanbul as the context of work
Istanbul constitutes the largest urban concentration in Turkey (Ozus, Turk, & Dokmeci, 2011): 15.1 million population which represents 18% of Turkey’s overall population (84% of which were born out of Istanbul), 39 districts, 56 universities and 78 museums (Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2019). Geographically, it is situated across Europe and Asia, connected by three bridges, an underwater tunnel and ferries along the Bosporus strait. Modern Istanbul is a polycentric city, with multiple CBDs (Beyazit, 2015). In the transformation to a polycentric city both CBDs and sub-centers, and the residential regions have been expanding geographically (Kaya & Koc, 2019).
A consequence of the simultaneous expansion of CBDs and housing locations is that a considerable proportion of the working population in Istanbul regularly engage in inter-continental commute. Despite recent improvements, Istanbul’s transport infrastructure is unable to cope with the increasing proportions of commuters (Batur & Koç, 2017). Istanbul has been consistently cited among the world’s most congested cities, where an average of 24 and 34 minutes are added onto each 30-minute journey for morning and evening trips, respectively (Tomtom, 2019).
As a multi-nuclei city, Istanbul is the natural hub for many industries in Turkey, with implications for connecting Europe and Asia operations for many businesses. It therefore offers broad range of opportunities for professionals from many areas of work, which may help facilitate career development. However, as noted above, for many professionals daily working life involves long -often inter-continental- commute to work. In this paper, we focus broadly on the role of Istanbul as a megacity in influencing job choices and career progression for professionals, with a particular focus on impact of inter-continental commute.
Method
Study is based on 40 semi-structured interviews with professionals who commute-to and fro Bosporus for work at least three times a week and have minimum five years of work experience. Snowball sampling method was used: resulting in a sample who work mostly in banking/finance, creative arts and higher education industries.
Following four pilot interviews, the interview protocol was consolidated as consisting of four sections, focusing on: (1) demographics (e.g., marital status, hometown, and a brief overview of career history); (2) commuting-to-work in Istanbul (e.g., reasons for living in Istanbul (and in the particular neighborhood), typical commuting route on a daily basis, time spent commuting to work); (3) perceptions on career boundaries (e.g., due to intercontinental commuting and other characteristics of the city); and (4) future perspectives (plans for moving out of Istanbul). Deductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Clarke, Braun, & Hayfield, 2004) was adopted as the data analysis strategy, with a semantic conceptualization of themes relying on the explicit statements of the participants.
Preliminary findings
Job choice decisions that involved inter-continental commute were largely based on a trade-off between quality of job opportunities and that of social life in general (i.e., housing decisions based on housing prices/being homeowners, proximity to social networks, family ties, proximity to partner’s work and to childcare providers). Decision to take up jobs on ‘the other side’ of Istanbul were very much rooted in career opportunities and location of CBDs. Especially among the finance/banking professionals, there was a sense of obligation for working in the European side. Depending on the mode of transport used, the commute took between 30 minutes to two hours, one way. The proportion of participants who mentioned that the commute was enjoyable and positively contributed to how they performed their job was small, with the majority mentioning the stress introduced by time spent in traffic (e.g., you start the working day physical and mentally exhausted that can’t be positive) primarily due to other passengers/drivers’ rude attitudes toward each other but also sacrifices made in family/personal life. Most inter-continental commuters had little/no intention of moving nearer their work.
The majority of respondents perceived the city as a facilitator of their career progression. This was primarily associated with opportunities for professional growth (e.g., inspiration by the city’s landscape for creative arts professionals), availability of career paths in organizations (and with possibilities for moving abroad) and other employability enhancing opportunities (e.g., professional networking). Where the city was perceived as a barrier to progression, this was due to the fierce competition in access to opportunities and the difficulty of shining through the rest of the candidates in access to jobs or promotions.

Citation

Arman, G. (2020, February). To and Fro the Bosporus: Exploring the role of Istanbul’s Urban Structure as a Career Boundary. Paper presented at Careers Division Community Conference of Academy of Management,, Vienna, Austria

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Careers Division Community Conference of Academy of Management,
• Conference Location: Vienna, Austria
• Start Date: Feb 14, 2020
• End Date: Feb 15, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5629489