Activision Blizzard’s latest anti-harassment effort is a ‘responsibility committee’
2 min readActivision Blizzard faces an increase in supervision from the government and the game industry for handling ongoing sexual harassment scandals, and the latest efforts may not help. As a Kotaku report, the developer has formed a “workplace responsibility committee” to help him implement anti-harassment and new anti-discrimination efforts. While it sounds useful at first, there are fears of more symbolic committees than functional.
The committee will be launched with only two members, both of the Fajar Ostroff and Bowers Reveta) are members of the existing independent council. They, in turn, will report to the Board and Executive Blizzard Key Activition – including CEO Bobby Kotick, who some people ident to blame for the scandal. The duo will work with the outer coordinator and a consultant after the company’s settlement with the EEOC, but none mention involves regular company staff or outsiders who are not part of the court agreement.
Thus, it will not be surprising if the committee does not satisfy criticism. Employees and other people have asked Koick to resign, including substantial changes. There was also a low trust in the leadership ability to the police itself – Jennifer Oneal, the first female leader of Blizzard, allegedly left his position that he was the target of discrimination by corporate culture that seemed to be spread. Bloomberg noted that some board members (including Ostroff) are friends and old connections Koick, in this case. The Committee may need to take aggressive steps if you want to prove it more than superficial movements.