Solent PhD student wins two business psychology awards
Research into how to alleviate the psychological impact of restructuring in the workplace by a Southampton Solent University PhD student has won two prestigious industry awards.
Maddy Petzer, a Human Resources Business Partner for Siemens, has been awarded both the Outstanding Student Achievement award and the Employee Health and Well-being award by the Association of Business Psychology (ABP).
As part of her ‘Supporting organisational messengers during redundancy situations' research she formulated a model to support, train and guide management through the process of restructuring.
Speaking about her work, Maddy said, “To inform my research, I worked extensively to understand the core business challenges and gain an understanding of what drives decision making within business undergoing organisational restructuring. This enabled me to create a management model to assist in the process.”
She began at Solent in 2005 with a Certificate in Personnel Practice before going on to study for postgraduate diplomas, a Masters Degree and before undertaking her PhD.
The ABP Workforce Experience Awards focus on demonstrating how applying an understanding of the science of human behaviour can impact workforce experience and deliver commercial and practical value to organisations.
No stranger to awards, Maddy won the Best Senior HR Professional Award for 2013 – awarded by Bond Williams and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) for leading Strategic and Operational Change.
Maddy’s PhD supervision, Dr Graham Benmore, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management said: "It is pleasing to see that Maddy’s excellent work has been recognised in this way. The awards reflect well on her achievements and also on the high quality of work that goes on in the Business Research Centre".
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For more information about the ABP Awards visit www.theabp.org.uk
Having previously completed her Masters Degree in Occupational Stress and studying Industrial, Applied and Developmental Psychology, Maddy decided to focus on a career in the Corporate world working in the field of Human Resources. She complimented her knowledge by qualifying as a Specialist Paralegal in Employment Law in 2008 – achieved with distinction. Maddy is currently employed as a Human Resources Business Partner for Siemens, a multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company with 13 760 employees in the UK alone and 360 000 world-wide.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE MEDIA OFFICE ON 023 8031 9642 or email press.office@solent.ac.uk
About Southampton Solent University
Southampton Solent University offers more than 23,000 students over 200 qualifications ranging from HND to PhD, in subjects such as maritime education and training, fashion and design, media and television, music, health, sport and leisure, business, IT and technology. The university was awarded the 2013 Quality Assurance kitemark for quality and standards of teaching and learning. Solent was voted one of the most creative universities in the UK in a Which? University 2013 poll of students. It has been awarded ‘Gold approval’ by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
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