SCHOOL La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University WHY WOMEN DON’T SELF-PROMOTE: GENDERED ATTITUDES AROUND MODESTY
COUNTRY Austral ia
omen are up to five times less likely to self-promote than men, because of societal
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LEGAL ACCESS AMONG TOPICS COVERED IN SYSTEMS THINKING CONTEST
expectations for women to be modest, according to a new study. Self-promotion among women, it suggests, contravenes these expectations and carries a risk of backlash, both socially and professionally. “We found that the difference in self- promotion was largely driven by women’s concerns about being seen as immodest,” explained Julio Mancuso Tradenta, a senior lecturer in economics at La Trobe University and lead author of the study. “This reluctance can significantly undermine women’s visibility and recognition in areas such as the job market, leadership, political participation and other forms of social engagement.” Mancuso Tradenta believes professional development programmes can help limit this additional barrier to gender equality, arguing that it “could help individuals navigate modesty norms by building awareness of effective communication strategies.” He now wants to see how the study’s findings can inform better organisational processes. “We are exploring the design of a real-world workplace intervention to assess the impact of providing socially acceptable justifications for self- promotion in professional settings.” EB
systemic gridlock across the country. They put forward online dispute resolution as a promising lever for change. “Their achievement reflects their deep commitment to systems thinking and social insight,” GIM director Ajit Parulekar said. First place in the competition went to a team from Wesleyan University for a project analysing the dual crisis of sinking land and water scarcity in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital and the world’s fastest-sinking city. Second place went to a team from Vanderbilt University for its account of nomadic herders’ vulnerability to dzud , a climate disaster unique to Mongolia and other areas of Central Asia. The competition’s focus on systems thinking promotes the development of leaders that can rise to the challenge of today’s complex societal and environmental issues. As its brochure explains: “Systems leaders catalyse social change by empowering others and prioritise a deep understanding of the unjust systems they are trying to dismantle.” TBD
SCHOOL Goa Institute of Management COUNTRY India
student team from Goa Institute of Management (GIM) recently became the
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first representatives of a business school in India to qualify for the final of Map the System, a global contest focused on forgoing quick fixes to thoroughly investigate complex problems through systems thinking. Organised by the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, this year’s Map the System final brought together 134 student finalists from 50 institutions across 17 countries. The GIM team explored India’s deep-rooted legal access crisis, uncovering issues of accountability and infrastructure that perpetuate
8 Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2025
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