valuable to its members and in what ways these networks are put to use. Being a member of the network assists individuals in attaining further roles, social responsibility and
employment. Doing one thing often leads to being asked to do another:
It’s true, the more you participate and construct the organisation, the more you get asked to get involved (TK, medical doctor).
There are other further illustrations of this:
It’s usually the same people, with different hats on. Our organisation is not that big, so sooner or later your turn will come to take responsibility (FA, lawyer).
My four years as the chairman of our organisation came to an end, soon after there was another free position about a year later. A representative had passed away, and I was invited back, and I’ve been there since. My reputations and visibility across the network probably helped with this as well I had to do this favour to them, I simply could not have denied. (EZ, medical doctor).
EZ, a medical doctor, was someone already known to the networks board. Through his earlier appointment as chairman of another organisation, he became trusted and an obvious candidate for the network position when another place in the organisation became accessible. This was favoured to the alternative method of interviewing or considering somebody else, or even enrolling a new member to the organisation. This form of narrow staffing is also clearly observable in my participants’ network organisations. These links serve to keep the network tight and closed (van Apeldoorn and De Graaff, 2015). Visibility on a larger scale includes cultivating a valued and esteemed profile and repute across the entire network. Being a
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member of professional network organisations and holding a high-status professional position motivated some of my participants to attain this:
Being professionally successful and at the same time being a member of such network organisations gives you a certain degree of profile …you’re constantly asked to reference and share your views, often to be photographed and interviewed and share your thoughts on business, political, but also integration topics (AA, businessman). Already existing in the network and being engaged within it helps professionals to achieve further awareness and sometimes even higher jobs and higher status, as belonging in this way serves as a lengthy route, occasionally even as a pre-checking mechanism.
I applied for plenty of jobs and often I was not even invited. Even though my PhD profile, my law profession, my work experience and my status were ideal for the position. There was this one job, where the interview took roughly less than an hour, which is very short for the position I applied, I suppose, because I was pretty well known to one individual who was questioning me. This was my jackpot (MA, lawyer). When I followed up on this, MA added that he knew one person on the interview panel from his German-Turkish network events, which underlines the importance of having personal contacts in the network. This meant that they knew him and the job was consequently a ‘jackpot’ to him. Furthermore, the network also enables individuals to assemble information about others from other associates in the network:
It’s more worth knowing people and knowing about them by a person you trust and appreciate, the real record matters. No one networks to get straight a better job, but networking is like a boomerang, at some point it will come back and benefit you. You have to put effort in and not take it for granted. Either these people know you
personally and it will benefit you sooner or later, or they know you over someone they trust and can get knowledge about you (OZ, medical doctor).
The network is described as a boomerang (OZ, medical doctor) and something which should not be taken for granted, which will eventually benefit later, and at the same time is described as a checking system. Similarly, far from taking networks for granted, Bourdieu (1990) argues that networking requires effort and the investment of time and resources. Even supposing a professional does not have direct knowledge of what a candidate is like, they can seek advice from other members of the network, individuals that they ‘trust’, to assist them in making their choices. It opens up lines of communication as they can call on trusted individuals for their opinions or bring it up as a subject of discussion at network events.
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Knowing somebody and their outlooks, approaches and prejudices diminishes the apparent distance between individuals (King, 2008), such that they are commendably already ‘halfway through’, as NM puts it, when it comes to endorsing a view or requesting something. As another participant states, having connections and a good reputation gives a person:
A lead, so that they already know what you do, who you are and possibly also why you are asking for something. It’s a matter of trust, once you have this, which comes with time, you are on the safe side (YB, businessman).
Knowing other members opens up channels of communication and enables confidential conversations about mutual benefits. These, as earlier, can be characterised as friendly and informal, and therefore give space for the use of favours. As with EZ, when he explained that he could not deny the position he was offered, this was likened to them doing a favour for the organisation, even though he had already served for four years as a chairman. My participants underline that, in order for a system of favours and compromises to effectively function, the network must be reciprocal in nature:
Most of my input has been beneficial to the association. I always try hard to be
valuable to them, at the same time they are obviously beneficial me. Trust and respect is central in the circles I operate in. It’s a cooperative commitment (ES, businessman). Being well connected in the network means that other people can ask things of them.
However, in return, this also then makes it easier for them to ask things of other associates. The relatively closed and personal nature of professional networks enables this as it increases the numbers of potential exchanges and makes the system of favours and promises easier to administer. The system of ‘give-and-take and favours’ is dependent on a sense of commitment to other members in the network and to the network itself. Nonetheless, it is also reliant on trust and being on the ‘safe side’, as YB calls it. Portes and Sensenbrenner (1993) describe this as enforceable trust where the level of trustworthiness of each individual professional member increases over time. Building a trusted and respected reputation requires time, but brings its own rewards. It is a central asset for professional elites to have, as they count on enlightening an image of reliability and a good reputation (Mintz and Schwartz, 1988), which is essential when commercial agreements and know-how are exchanged (Kadushin, 1995).
7.7 Conclusion
The two organisations examined in my research, Comm Network and Prof Network, function as bonding networks which reinforce bonds amid like-minded professionals with similar
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professional desires, socio-economic status and educational pathways and shared feelings of loyalty towards the German-Turkish community. Although the network organisations and their associates set out to build professional networks for the German-Turkish community, my findings suggest that the respondents did not simply focus on the added value to their
professional careers. Instead, they also use these networks to reinforce bonding ties with like- minded individuals from the same ethnic upbringing. These contacts not only enhance their status, which sooner or later will come back like a boomerang, to benefit them, they also encourage others to endure in their professional journey, while increasing chances for others who are less privileged. These networks deliver in return valuable resources to enhance their positions in the high-status contexts in which they work. Conceivably even more substantial, though, are the prospects they present for supporting others and sharing their knowledge to show others the right pathway.
In other words, they encourage the collective shaping of the German-Turkish professional community, giving voice and a positive image to social and professional identities. Both network associations offer a cushioning function, bonding German-Turkish ties in order to improve labour market positions and awareness. Even though associations adopt a much more open attitude to other social groups, their inner core is somehow focused on bonding networks with co-ethnics and establishing strong ties. Regarding the comparative design of the study, I found bonding to be the strongest objective of both network associations studied. Almost all participants, even those who do not network in professional clusters, tend to primarily connect with compatible individuals who have a comparable German-Turkish background and
ambition. Furthermore, the two biggest associations in which my participants were active, both have a similar focus on social issues, whereby members develop shared responsibilities to give back to those in less fortunate circumstances. While bonding with co-ethnics is an imperative motivation to almost all networkers, a few participants also stress the belief that co-ethnic networks will slowly lose its significance, as, to upcoming generations, roots will be less central. Instead, education, habits and socio-economic matters will move to the fore as in other classic elite network organisations. The German-Turkish economic elites form an established group that is growing slowly and is well informed about labour market conditions. Its members consequently have more potential to provide valuable evidence on networking among their professional network organisations and approaches. Future studies of German- Turkish professional elite members and their networks will reveal whether such ties will continue to be bonding, centred on co-ethnics and isolating for the German-Turkish elite in the long run, or alternatively bridging and a source of cohesiveness in German society.
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Chapter 8: Conclusion
8.1 Introduction: Overview of the thesis