Top thesis ‘provides a blueprint for Carib firms’

THERE are lots of Trinis who have gained acclaim in various fields. TT can now also add Dr Cheryl Ann Phillips-Hall to that list. The academic, management executive and strategic business development consultant attained multiple distinctions, leading up to qualifying her for the award of her this highest degree by the Edinburgh Business School for her thesis on work-related staff burnout and its impact on organisational competitiveness. Phillips-Hall's outstanding performance led to her being given the honour of leading 160 graduates.

The award was given to her by the Edinburgh Business School of the Heriot-Watt University.

A release on Phillips-Hall’s work said she “is the only academic researcher worldwide to prove Hobfoll’s (Dr Stevan E Hobfoll who wrote The Ecology of Stress) theory on burnout by formulating a quantitative structural model. Besides being recognised as the only Caribbean graduate, Phillips-Hall attained multiple distinctions in the Doctor of Business Administration degree (DbA). Phillips-Hall’s first place also received the honour of leading the 160 graduates at the summer 2018 graduation ceremony at the Scotland-based business school.”

Phillips-Hall, discussing why her research is groundbreaking and its importance for regional companies, said in a media release, “My research uses empirical analysis to show that the symptoms of management burnout are collectively impacted by an organisation’s leadership governance style, corporate culture and internal staff’s social networks or relationships, and that this burnout negatively affects the company’s performance. In the academic world, only one or two theories have been proven. My research was the first to prove that all four factors exist simultaneously.”

She said, before her method, Caribbean companies were “forced to use older testing instruments based on UK and North America firms which have different organisational leadership styles, cultures and internal social networks.”

The release added, “Here in the Caribbean, we are different and this was based on Caribbean research to provide a tailored blueprint for Caribbean companies, especially those in high technology industries and those which are striving to attain success.”

Phillips-Hall said that work-related burnout “is an area of increasing prominence because of the detrimental effects it can have on a business’ performance. Staff work-related burnout is often the reason that a company is experiencing a lower level of goal attainment than it should. This is a new and emerging consultancy area which scientifically examines the level of toxicity and its causes in an organisation, then treats the underlying causes of this burnout to produce a high-performing team that can help the company to achieve its strategic goals.”

The Heriot-Watt alumna who holds two masters degrees, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and an MSc in Strategic Focus, from the Edinburgh Business School, was pivotal in the strategic decisions of TSTT’s successful 2005 deregulation and the transformation of Massy Communications, now Amplia, in achieving its first digital last mile nationwide, the release said.

She is also a former member of the American Chamber of Commerce of TT (Amcham) and the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Phillips-Hall also continues to be a positive contributor to the successful trade and diversification of small developing economies (SDEs).

Her doctoral work has been published in the Journal of Social and Economic Studies, Jamaica (2017) and in the minutes of the Inaugural Entrepreneurship Conference, Guyana (2018).