Dr Paula Fitzgerald

Overview

Biography

Paula is an associate tutor in the Department of People, Work and Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck (PWOP), University of London. She also tutors and is a research project supervisor on the University of London’s MSc OPHRM International Programme, delivered in collaboration with Birkbeck. She holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology and an MSc in Human Resources Development and Consultancy from Birkbeck, and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). Paula has played an active role in the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, tutoring across several MSc programmes, including MSc Organizational Psychology and MSc Human Resource Management, and contributing to departmental public events and international conferences as a doctoral researcher speaker and member of the Qualitative Research Methods Group.

In addition, Paula has significant hands-on industry experience having worked in the financial services sector as Human Resources Manager in the City of London with both large multinational and boutique financial institutions. 

Paula’s doctoral research makes a timely and reflexive contribution to the burgeoning stream of research in Organizational Studies, exploring the body/identity nexus beyond discourse. Located in a ‘youth venerating’ context, her research illuminates the lived experience of high-performing individuals in a body-centric occupation (elite professional ballet dancers) in an aesthetically normative context. Her study makes the case for the temporal nature of age(ing) to be addressed throughout the lifecycle of a career rather than as an event at the nexus of retirement. This signals the need for the un/doing of linear chrononormativity, and the deployment of alternative conceptualisations of age in the process of organising work. Paula’s research gives voice to a high performing, but understudied, occupation in Organizational Studies.

Highlights

• My doctoral thesis: ‘Turning Pointe: the lived experience of an embodied occupational identity in professional ballet dancers’.  Supervised by Professor Almuth McDowall (Principal), Dr Raluca Matei; and Professor Katrina Pritchard.  Read it here: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/50680/

Professional memberships

• -Chartered Member of the CIPD (MCIPD).

• -ACC Credentialed Member of the ICF (International Coaching Federation)

• -IMC Member of the CFA Society of the UK.

ORCID

0009-0000-0589-032X

Research

Research interests

• Qualitative experiential, and visual, research.
• Body/identity nexus beyond discourse.
• Age(ing) at work, particularly in the context of high-performing, youth-venerating occupations. Alternative conceptualisations of age.
• Performing arts as work
• Calling (particularly its 'dark side').
• Perfectionism (particularly in high-performing individuals, and contexts).
• Reflexivity and the qualitative researcher
• Career transitioning, post-traumatic growth.
• Workaholism as a way of coping with grief.
• Professional coaching as a way of coping with unmet needs

Supervision and teaching

Teaching

In addition to the (internal) teaching modules listed at the bottom of the page, I also contribute to the (external) OPHRM International Programme (University of London), where I teach and provide tutoring support in the following areas:

• Life Career Development;
• Work and Wellbeing;
• Global HR and Diversity Management;
• Qualitative Research Methods.
• MSc research project supervision (qualitative)

I support MSc students in the development of their research proposals, methodological design, critical analysis, and the completion of their dissertations.

Teaching modules

• Life Career Development
• Critical Perspectives on People Management
• Principles of Organization and Management
• Employee Relations and Motivation
• Professional Development and Learning