Competitiveness, stress and impostors syndrome in students from top B-schools

Abstract

Results from exploratory research revealed that post graduates from top Business schools in India are perceived as hypercompetitive with stress and impostors’ syndrome characterising the lives of many among them. Common belief in the industry perceives the culture and curriculum of the business schools to be a primary reason for the observed behaviour. This paper investigates the above stated hypothesis by estimating levels of competitiveness, stress and impostors’ syndrome in students of first year (n = 82), second year (n=66) and pass outs (n=38) across top Business schools of the country. Based on the secondary research standardised scales from each domain were identified: Competitiveness Index by Smither & Houston, perceived stress scale by Sheldon Cohen and Leary’s scale for impostor’s syndrome. The analysis has been targeted towards identifying the concerned behavioural metrics among students based on their gender, relative rank of the college among peers and their current year in context of MBA.