Dr Paula Fitzgerald

Overview

Biography

Paula is an associate tutor and research project supervisor in the Department of People, Work and Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. She holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology and an MSc in Human Resources Development and Consultancy from Birkbeck.  In addition, she 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, where she has tutored on a number of MSc programmes (MSc Organizational Psychology, and MSc Human Resource Management) and participated in various departmental public events and international conferences as a doctoral researcher speaker and member of the Qualitative Research Methods Group.

Paula has significant 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/

Qualifications

• PhD (Organizational Psychology), University of London, 2023
• Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), Advance Higher Education (AdvanceHE), 2015
• Chartered Member CIPD (MCIPD), Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2013
• MSc Human Resource Development and Consultancy, University of London, 2012
• BA (Hons) Business Studies, University of West London, 2010
• Investment Management Certificate (IMC), CFA Society of the UK, 2006

Professional memberships

• -Chartered Member of the CIPD (MCIPD).

• -Member of the ICF (International Coaching Federation)

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

Research

Research interests

• Body/identity nexus beyond discourse.
• Qualitative experiential, and visual, research.
• Performing arts as work
• Age(ing) at work, particularly in the context of high-performing, youth-venerating occupations. Alternative conceptualisations of age.
• 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

Teaching modules

• Life Career Development (MOOP007H7)
• Employee Relations and Motivation (MOOP009H7)