Experiencing and Negotiating (Ambivalent) Career Boundaries: A Study of SIE Accountants in the UAE

Career boundaries are at the centre of this study. Through a qualitative inquiry, based on 30 semi-structured, thematically driven interviews of SIE accountants from the Asian subcontinent, who are living and working in the UAE, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which individuals experience career boundaries and how they may or may not navigate their way around these boundaries via various strategies. A key contribution of this study to the careers literature is its focus on the versatility and richness of boundaries and its examination of how individuals negotiate with a range of multiple and co-existing boundaries as they structure their careers. In particular, the findings of this study demonstrated that participants were ambivalent about their choices of coping strategies, either because they were faced with doubt (psychological ambivalence) or because contradictions within the system (sociological ambivalence) prevented them from taking an alternative strategy. Examining how individuals experience ambivalence in their careers offers a valuable contribution to the careers literature as little attention has been paid to acknowledge uncertainties and contractions in how individuals perceive and experience a career and career boundaries. By illuminating the dynamics within ambivalent career experiences and comparing these experiences with career literature generally and career boundaries specifically, this study therefore theoretically contributes to our understanding of why individuals may or may not adopt certain modes of engagement in dealing with their perceived career boundaries.