Warsash Maritime Academy| 
wmaheadertext 
Southampton Solent University|  

Dr Katherine Devitt BA (Joint Hons) MSc PhD 

Senior Lecturer, School of Maritime Training

Katherine Devitt
Telephone:
+44 (0)1489 556299  
Extension:
4299  
Room:
WW 209  

Expertise/Academic Interests

Strategic leadership of multi-agency major incidents.

Maritime Resource Management (leadership and teamworking; cultural awareness; communication; situational awareness; stress management; conflict management) in all contexts.

Behavioural markers for maritime leadership and resource management.

Coaching for senior managers and officers.

Teambuilding for effective operational effectiveness.

Biography

Katherine has extensive strategic and operational experience in several industries as well as within the public sector, in HR, OD and management development and change management skills at Director level. She also has broad experience in business continuity/crisis management training and planning. Her maritime background includes 15 years as an RN and RNR officer, and operational HR experience in the ferry industry.

For 12 years, she  operated a successful consultancy as a business psychologist specialising in business performance coaching, management development, team-building, facilitation and organisational analysis. She joined Warsash in March 09 as a Senior Lecturer, focusing on leadership and maritime resource management, and is involved in a range of research and consultancy activities.

She is also an associate with a risk and crisis management consultancy, authoring and exercising disaster plans, carrying out training, and observing and reporting on the psychodynamics of strategic management groups operating in crisis situations.

Katherine holds a BA (Joint Hons) in Law and Politics from the University of Keele, an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the University of London, and a PhD from the University of Portsmouth for her research on effective strategic leadership of multi-agency major incidents.  She holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCTLHE) from Southampton Solent University.

She is a certificated NLP practitioner, is qualified in psychometrics to British Psychological Society level B (including OPQ, Firo-B, MBTI, Neo and LJI)and has a diploma in Business Performance Coaching and a Certificate in Counselling.

Principal Publications

Devitt, K. R. and E. P. Borodzicz (2008). "Interwoven Leadership: the Missing Link in Multi-Agency Major Incident Response." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 16(4): 208-216) Peer reviewed

Devitt, Katherine and Holford, Simon. (2010)."The development of resource management and leadership behavioural markers for the Merchant Navy" In: Maritime Human Resources Solutions Conference, 28th - 30th September 2010, St John's, Newfoundland. Canada

Research and Enterprise Activities

With her colleague Simon Holford, Katherine is carrying out a programme of research on Resource Management and Leadership behavioural markers for Merchant Navy officers.  Validation of these markers will be conducted in WMA simulators during 2011. This research has been funded by grants from Southampton Solent University/HEIF .

Associations

Principal member of the Association of Business Psychologists.