The Faculty which Really Delivers...

Producing a doctoral thesis is one thing, but to also produce a baby within a few months is quite another. There must be something in the air at the Management Studies section of Organisational Psychology, because they seem to be in the business of producing successful women academics, ahead of schedule.

Creating both a thesis and a baby, virtually simultaneously, is recently-promoted Senior Lecturer Suki Goodman, who has just received news that her doctorate is due to be awarded to her. The baby took her less than nine months to produce and the doctoral thesis was conceived and delivered within a gestation period of only 2½ years.

Litttle Amy Ray Distiller arrived in the world on 4 September, about three weeks ahead of schedule, sending Suki’s plans to keep working for 40 weeks into disarray. Fortunately for her, the great support of the team ensured that everything in the section ran smoothly.

“It is unbelievable how supportive my colleagues have been to me. The collegial support from the Section of Organisational Psychology has been phenomenal – they took over my postgraduate supervision, course co-ordination and teaching,” she said, when her plans were thwarted by an emergency Caesarian.

She paid tribute to her supervisor, the head of Organisational Psychology, Professor Joha Louw-Potgieter, who had the foresight to encourage her to deliver the thesis before the baby. And acknowledged the support of her husband, Greg, who had something to do with both.

Suki registered for her doctorate in 2006 on the topic: “An Evaluation of a Social Context Training Programme for South African Magistrates” and worked solidly, without the benefit of sabbatical.

“It is a great testament to my supervisor, Joha, who told me long before I fell pregnant that she could ‘hear the pitter patter of little feet’. Joha had the wisdom to encourage me to push the PhD process and I am so grateful for her supervision. My doctorate is as much about my supervisor as it is about me.”

Her hard work has paid off and she was recently promoted to Senior Lecturer. She is now spending her maternity leave making the final touches to her thesis, as the Doctoral Degrees Board has accepted the Committee of Assessors’ that she be awarded her doctorate provided that minor changes are made.

Although she is loving being a mother, she is also looking forward to being back in April 2009. “I love what I do. It is never an effort coming to work…which says a lot about the place where we work”

Said Joha: “Please join me in celebrating this wonderful achievement in our Section: a PhD, a promotion to senior lecturer and a baby. Dr Sarah Riordan, another doctoral student who graduated from this Section last year, did her thesis on successful women academics. I am very proud to say that in Organisational Psychology we do not just write about it, but we live it!”

Suki Goodman and newborn Amy Ray Distiller

Posted 24/10/2008 by Carolyn McGibbon