Understanding the role of relationships in making career choices among Turkish MBA students

Abstract

Relationships are central to human functioning. They serve as channels for social resources such as informational, emotional and instrumental support. However, the role of these relational influences in career progress is usually de-emphasized in the literature. Rather, work and relatedness have been perceived as two opposite and distinct modalities of human functioning. Accordingly, work is assumed to represent agency, individuality and separateness, whereas relatedness is assumed to imply dependency. Only in recent years has interest in understanding how relationships and careers are intertwined increased (Blustein, 2001; Blustein et al., 1997; Blustein et al., 2004; Flum, 2001; Schultheiss, 2003; Phillips et al., 2001; Schultheiss et al., 2001). This increased interest in relationships in the organizational research is a reflection of a general tendency away from individualistic explanations toward more relational and contextual ones in social sciences.