Activision Blizzard: Activision Blizzard Sued for Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment (2021)

 

Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard's CEO

Case Controversy 

           Activision Blizzard is one of the largest gaming creators in the world. They have produced many popular games played by millions of people all around the world. Some of the games worth mentioning are Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush. The gaming industry itself prides itself on being very inclusive to all people from different backgrounds, religions, and genders. However, it would seem that is not the case for the companies that make the games individually. On July 20th, 2021, Activision Blizzard was hit with a lawsuit from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), which is a company in California that is predicated on making sure the people of California are protected from employers who try and violate their rights they are entitled too. 

 

           On July 20th, 2021, Activision Blizzard was hit with a lawsuit from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). The DFEH is a California-based company whose job is to make sure the people of California’s working rights are not violated (Workplace Rights). some examples would be fighting against gender discrimination and sexual harassment those of which Activision Blizzard is being accused. The accusations come from former employees who worked under Activision Blizzard who say the company does treat different gendered employees fairly and equally. As the lawsuit came out it spread throughout the whole industry. Initial accounts from employees came out confirming the controversies to be true. This led to a companywide walkout which occurred on July 27th-28th, 2021. During the walkout employees, past and current were interviewed based on how their experience at Activision Blizzard was. One account of this comes from an employee who worked in Activision Blizzard’s customer service department helping with glitches and other problems customers might face. She accounted that she was working with her ex-boyfriend at the time, and she was getting paid significantly less than what he was getting paid for the same job being done (New York Times). 

    Under federal law, it is illegal to pay employees different rates for the same job. This is protected under the Equal pay act of 1963. As well as the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which protects employees from discrimination against race, religion, sex, or national origin (California Discrimination Laws). This law would apply to the Activision lawsuit which under the law if the company had 15 or more employees the federal law applies any company who has less the state law would apply. 

           Response from the company came in the forms of emails sent internally to help address the “Frat Culture” the company was accused of having (IGN). After the release of statements by the company President J. Allen Brack was reported to step down and leave the company amid his roles in the allegations (IGN). In this report, the company had stated it was a mutual agreement for both parties to part ways after the years spent together.  

           After the lawsuit had been filed and gone public Activision Blizzard faced even more backlash this time it was from sponsors and stockholders who were furious at the company for not releasing information that they could have used in their decision making on what to do with the company. This resulted in many sponsors pulling their deals with the company some of the sponsors were Coca-Cola and State Farm. 

           Throughout the lawsuit, the company had released statements claiming they have fired multiple supervisors who were tied into the discrimination and sexual harassment reports. The number fell to 20 total employees the company had released from their positions (IGN).

           Throughout the lawsuit, the company had also hired new employees who were brought in to help rebuild the trust and faith that employees should be able to into their supervisors. One of the new hires was a former Disney executive whose main goal was to liberate the company from its toxic workplace culture (IGN). 

 However, with the company trying to rebuild its relationship with its employees the company had come to terms with a settlement in the courtroom. The lawsuit had settled for an agreement to be paid 18 million dollars to the victims who were affected by the company’s negligence to assess the sexual harassment and discrimination reports. Now that the company has faced the legal battles and reached a settlement it does not mean that everything is to go back to the way it was before. The company has made its intentions clear now with a focus on rebuilding company trust with not only its employees but with its sponsors, stockholders, and customers throughout. The company faces a long road to rebuilding which can and only will take time to do. 

Protesters fighting for equality

Stakeholders

           The stockholders in this specific case would be the employee's past and present, the customers, future shareholders, and finally the executives of the company. The employees both past and present were heavily affected by the handling of this case and allegations of Activision Blizzard. They had the most to lose since this case revolved around how they were mistreated and portrayed in the company. The customers had been affected because of this as well since Activision Blizzard is a large gaming company and gaming is a large sector of what people do for fun in their free time it affects their trust in the company who they spend a lot of of money on to do the right thing. Future shareholders may be inclined to invest in this company now and in the future after the company just had to pay a multimillions dollar settlement. The shareholders would not trust the company anymore to keep a transparent relationship with them since they did not in the past. Finally, the executives of the company cannot be too happy with the managerial process they currently have in the company since it led to them losing millions of dollars which affected them heavily. 

Individualism

    Individualism is described two different ways. Throughout the history of individualism there have been two people who have their own theory for individualism. Milton Friedman, an economist during the 90’s and early 2000’s says that businesses only goal is to profit and the only obligation for a person in business is to maximize profit for shareholders and other owners as long as they are within the law of the land. Tibor Machan was another person who spoke about individualism he agreed the only direct goal of a business is to profit. Also, he agreed that the primary obligation of a business person is to maximize profit while abiding by the law. Machan’s Individualism also adds that the direct goal of profiting may need to meet indirect goals that are not necessarily aimed at profiting. He also adds that business people may have separate goals and they may be prioritized over goals that involve profiting. In relation to this case, it is clear that we can see how individualism may be incorporated. One of the most significant things about this case that stood out was Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick’s response to the allegations against his company. Natalie Clayton wrote an article for pcgamer.com talking about how he took a pay cut amid the lawsuits. This could be related to individualism because Kotick has a goal to profit for his company in the long run but for now, he needs to meet the indirect goal of fixing his company’s reputation which is not necessarily focused on profits. This would align with Machan’s view on individualism. Clayton says in her article, “Notably, in order to give the company "every available resource" to fix the company's cultural issues, Kotick announced a significant cut to his pay— and while he's taken salary cuts before, it seems this one pointedly includes his notoriously lofty bonuses, which have previously approached almost $200 million in value” (Clayton, 2021). It seems that right now Kotick’s long-term profit would be hindered if he did not fix this problem. His main goal right now is to fix his reputation by cutting his profit for the time being until he believes his business fixes their issues. CNN has an article about this case where they say “Kotick said the company will "continue to be vigilant" in stamping out harassment and discrimination. "We thank the EEOC for its constructive engagement as we work to fulfill our commitments to eradicate inappropriate conduct in the workplace,” His main goal right now is not aimed at profiting but they need to fulfill these goals in order to profit in the future so it could be accepted by Machan’s view on individualism. 

Utilitarianism 

           A utilitarian would view the handling of the Activision Blizzard case by the company as unethical. Under utilitarianism, business actions should seek to maximize the happiness in themselves and others in the short-term as well as the long-term (Salazar 17). In the Activision Blizzard case, happiness was not maximized for the majority of the stakeholders which makes this unethical according to utilitarianism. 

Employees (Past/Present): For the employees at Activision both current and past they were ultimately affected negatively while working at Activision Blizzard they were mistreated and subjected to discrimination and harassment in the workplace that could have ultimately been avoided if the people at the company were held to a higher standard. The one positive coming from the case is the 18-million-dollar settlement they will be receiving from the company to avoid more time and money on the lawsuit. 

Customers: The customers who buy their games from Activision Blizzard were also affected negatively by the Activision Blizzard lawsuit since they are the ones who spend the money to play the games and invest in the company they were affected when the company decided to delay the release of new games. This ultimately did not make the customers happy who were waiting for the new releases for some time now. 

Stockholders (Present/Future): When it comes to stockholders of the company they were affected by this lawsuit as well since they were the ones who originally put money into the company and the company had to settle for 18-million-dollars. This will lead to uncertainty when it comes to potential future stockholders and whether or not they invest in the company. They will ultimately go with a company they can trust that will not lose them money but instead maximize their profits which were not done in this case. 

 Executives: When it comes to the executives in the company, they were affected t0o in this case controversy. They are the owners of the company and look to maximize their profits while staying within the constraints of the law. Before the company got sued for wrongdoing in the workplace, they were happy because profits were being maximized. However, when the lawsuit went public, they were not happy anymore. The lawsuit ended up losing them money which none of them can be happy about now. They will now look into new management and improve from the old one which lost them money before, so it does not happen again. 

Workers and activists protest to stop the workplace harassments 

 

Kantianism

    A Kantian would view the initial actions of Blizzard to be unethical and impermissible. As executives attempt to address the situation, situations of sexual harassment got out. An example of this would be the one involving Emily Mitchell after the breastfeeding situations were addressed. A Kantian would view this as a violation within acting consistent to the rules and not being exempt. As in the case, sexual harassment was addressed with the breastfeeding scenario, except weeks later, the Emily Mitchell situation surfaced in the lawsuit. These actions are unethical and impermissible as they violate the formula of humanity. The formula of humanity claims that people should not be treated as a mere means but as an end. In other words, not using people in a negative way to achieve something. This relates back to the breastfeeding case, using a woman exposed to achieve some sort of sexual/ humor pleasure.

    As the case unfolds, hundreds of Blizzards employee’s walkout against the company due to their sexual harassment scandals. The walkout promotes having a safe spot to work for women and that sexual harassment not belonging in the workplace. Energy was optimistic as hundreds demanded for a safer environment. Sticking with the Kantian view. Employees demand that all employees are equal to the rules, and nobody is exempt. Especially at the cost of a major federal lawsuit. A Kantian views the early and mid-parts of the case unethical. However, a Kantian would view the most recent parts of the case to be ethical.

   From late September to our current date, Blizzard has been working with $18 million in means of compensation, improving management, and other improvisations of quality in the workplace. Blizzard’s mission is to improve honesty and trust as it is ethically right. These attempts to improve their record matches the three motivations of a Kantian…

1.     I will be honest with my customers to gain their trust and get repeat-business.

2.     I will be honest with my customers because I like them.

3.     I will be honest with my customers because it’s the right thing to do.

Protesters outside of ACTi visions facilities 

 

These main motivations from a Kantian belief are being used to improve relations with their business internally and externally. Blizzard represents the Kantian view as it goes back to the core of playing by their own rules and having no one be exempt. Also improving themselves using Kantian motivations.

 Virtue Theory

    When talking about Virtue Theory, Aristotle made virtue theory. It focuses on if a person is virtuous or not. The main point in virtue theory is courage, honesty, temperance, and justice. Aristotle had said People must live by virtue theory to exercise rationality to function well and live good lives. And People who behave like this will live a good life. Activision Blizzard was not courageous because they weren’t doing the right thing. They discriminated against pregnant employees and sexually harassed females, causing a frat boy environment. The second one is honesty, and they weren’t treating their female employees equally. Men made way more money than the women working there, and when women would be in the lactation room(a lactation room is a place where women go to breast pump), room men would kick them out so they could have meetings, and they would have to find another place to do it. The third is temperance which is something reasonable. The workplace was not in which male employees drank copious amounts of alcohol as they made their way between office cubicles and engaged in inappropriate behavior towards female employees. The last virtue is justice. They were not very just to their employees. They treated the employees so unethically. They would get constant harassment from male employees. 

An example of this is a  former Senior Creative Director, Alex Afrasiabi, a World of WarCraft. They would hit on female employees engaging in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions(theverge.com). During company events, he would tell them he wanted to marry them, attempt to kiss them, putting his arms around them in plain view of other employees, especially the male employees making it seem like it was “acceptable” (theverge.com). And people would have to intervene and physically pull him off his female counterparts. Also, since he had harassed females so much, his suits were nicknamed the “Crosby suite” after the alleged rapist Bill Cosby (theverge.com). And when the women would speak up, the people who were doing the harassment would get a slap on the wrist every time. And when it came to paying and being promoted, women were offered much fewer promotions than their counterparts and paid much less. 

Action Plan

Our mission, to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment has never been more important. Through communities rooted in our video game franchises we enable hundreds of millions of people to experience joy, thrill and achievement. 

Our mission is to overall provide a workplace harmony internally to provide the best experience possible from producer to consumer. We want to make the gaming community a place where people can feel included regardless of their overall orientation. 

Step 1: Hiring more women means being more representative in the gaming community since they have been struggling with this in the past 

Step 2: Make promotions available to people of different genders. This is a good step for the company to right the wrongs it had done before as well as add onto its new core values of transparency and accountability 

Step 3: Remodel HR to be more employee-based/ friendly. This means starting with a new department head because the old human resources had lost a lot of credibility in the company with employees specifically since they were not protected by HR during this controversy

Step 4: Zero tolerance for harassment in the workplace rule. Applying this rule to the company seems like a no-brainer even before, but having it as a new step in the process will allow the company to follow through and make sure the rule is implemented throughout the company. 

Core Values  

Respect- In order to have a long-lasting company it needs to gain the respect of its employees and customers who were affected by the companies gross mishandling of these allegations. 

Equality- as seen by the walkouts by former and current employees shows that they demand equality in the workplace. By implementing equality we can see Activision blizzard be a successful company once again. 

Accountability- Being able to be held accountable is one of the most important parts of running a business if it is not one of the core values implemented when running a company you will not be successful in the long run. 

Transparency- being transparent allows employees and customers to hold you at a high standard and build a better relationship with the company. Transparency is something that comes up a lot with business owners who are successful and profitable for a long time.  

After establishing a new mission statement and core values in the company, Activision is now ready to start following them and holding their employees to the new standards. First, being one of the largest gaming companies in the world, Activision can start remodeling its Human Resources department. In the case controversy, we see that HR did not do an excellent job protecting employees in the company. This is why remolding this department can lead to a better function in the company, so this will not happen again. They can start with a new department head which they have already done by hiring other leaders from big companies such as Disney. Secondly, after that process has been taken care of,, they can segway into the hiring and promotion processes. Having a new department that understands the new values the company has placed can help them with hiring more women since they were grossly underrepresented in the company before. With hiring more women, we see a more significant representation in that company who can hold the leaders accountable better. As well as hiring, we can see a change in promotion at this company. They have struggled in the past since women almost never got the chance to be promoted into higher management at this company. This will show that the company is ready to move forward and be more inclusive after its past history showed it being more of a ‘frat house' like culture. As well as implementing these new changes we can finally move onto the last step which will hold everyone in the company accountable regardless of gender. We expect the company to insert a new rule which will hold everyone responsible. The new rule being there is zero room for tolerance of sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Making this a rule in the company will be the final straw of the company's implementations. This rule will finally bring on the change in a good way for the new version of Activision Blizzard to take over and be a leader in the gaming world.   

The mission statement we created differs from the old one as it relates more to the company's employees instead of just the customers. We wanted to keep the company's old statement but add a sense of inclusiveness to the workplace since that is the biggest point where they struggled in this case.

Connor Smith, Ryan Wawro, Ariel Johnson, Harrison Mendrala

Protesters outside of Activision's facilities 

References

Bankhurst, Adam. “Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Timeline: The Story so Far.” IGN. IGN, November 4, 2021. https://www.ign.com/articles/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-timeline-the-story-so-far.

Browning, Kellen, and Mike Isaac. “Activision, Facing Internal Turmoil, Grapples with #Metoo Reckoning.” The New York Times. The New York Times, July 29, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/technology/activision-walkout-metoo-call-of-duty.html.

Paul, Kari. “Activision Blizzard Scandal a 'Watershed Moment' for Women in the Gaming Industry.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, August 8, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/08/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-women-sexual-harassment.

Rhiannon. “California Gender Discrimination Laws.” Workplace Rights Law Group, June 23, 2021. https://workplacerightslaw.com/library/discrimination/gender-discrimination-laws-california/.

Salazar, H. The Business Ethics Case Manual. n.d.

Alford, A. (2021, October 27). Full timeline of the activision blizzard gender discrimination lawsuit [updated 08/12]. InvenGlobal. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from         https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/14659/full-timeline-of-the-activision-blizzard-gender-discrimination-lawsuit.

Clayton, N. (2021, October 28). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick takes a significant pay cut amid the publisher's ongoing lawsuits. pcgamer. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from             https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-ceo-bobby-kotick-takes-a-significant-pay-cut-amid-the-publishers-ongoing-lawsuits/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm&fbclid=IwAR2FUr8NRXoLZD-d08ng1BMNYdyJQ5Uo3S3GePTuzQz9DVOZIZUlCv2FJCA.

Diaz, J. (2021, September 28). Activision Blizzard strikes an $18 million deal over its workplace harassment lawsuit. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/28/1041068091/activision-blizzard-strikes-an-18-million-deal-over-its-workplace-harassment-law.

Fenlon, W. (2021, September 21). Everything that's happened since the Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Went Public. pcgamer. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-controversy-timeline-explained/.

Iyengar, R. (2021, September 28). Activision Blizzard says it will pay $18 million to settle harassment lawsuit. CNN. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/27/tech/activision-blizzard-eeoc-harassment-settlement/index.html.

Peters, Jay. “Activision Blizzard's Rot Goes All the Way to the CEO, Alleges Bombshell Report.” The Verge, The Verge, 16 Nov. 2021, https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785457/activision-blizzard-bobby-kotick-ceo-wall-street-journal-wsj-report-allegations. 

 

Pinterest Discrimination of Employees (June 2020)

 Pinterest Discrimination of Employees (June 2020)

 There are several different types of social media nowadays. One of the hardest things to create nowadays is a new way of social media since you have to hit a certain niche that hasn't already been covered. Most people are creatures of habit so they will stick to the same routine of checking the same three to four social media apps every day. Pinterest got started in 2010 at one of the most opportune times due to the fact of social media just starting to be on the rise. They provided an app that gives the user a whole new way to interact. It wasn't like Facebook, Instagram, youtube, etc. As with every company, it has its shares of ups and downs in the public eye with most of them not being considered ethically moral to most humans. Ethics plays a big part in business due to the fact that information spreads rather quickly so if you get caught doing something that is unethical you will face major backlash for it. The four major ethical theories are Utilitarianism, Individualism, Kantianism, and Virtue theory.  A utilitarian can be considered someone who wants happiness for all people involved. An individualist would want to maximize profits. Moving on to a Kantian who would want people to act with respect and honor. Lastly, a Virtuest who wants people to have good character traits and avoid being a bad person. 

Company Background

Pinterest is a social media company that started in 2010 with CEO Ben Silbermann and “With Instagram off the market following a 1 Billion dollar sale to Facebook, Pinterest is not the hot social media startup in Silicon Valley” (Founder). So, from the start, the company had lots of different eyes on it which made growth fairly easy “going from 5,000 users in August 2010 to 17 billion in 2012” (Founder). Silbermann got his start by working at Googleplex where he grew to a point where he didn't enjoy his job anymore and then his girlfriend encouraged him to quit. After he quit his job he started an “App development company, Cold Brew Labs” (History).

From this company, he and his high school friend developed an app called Tote. With Tote “Users could browse apparel and other goods from 30 retailers, save items as favorites, and receive push notifications when those items reduced in price” (History). This app sounds similar to what Pinterest developed into but it never got the traction due to people not really catching up with the transition to online shopping. But with the data of Tote Silbermann noticed a trend “ Users were browsing for products and saving them using Tote’s saving feature” (History). Using the data helped the development of Pinterest they took some of the base data from Tote and expanded on the save features and allowing people to search for things they want and be able to add them to a board to look at later. After years of trial and error with betas and testing, they finally launched their app to the public. “Most companies experience periods of intense growth … for Pinterest that was 2011”(History). This due to it being available on the Apple app store and helped them net more users than they thought possible. In 2012 it was time for a big round of funding so they had “raised 100 million dollars as a part of its Series C” (History) that gave them a net worth at the times that were higher than recently acquired Instagram. Until the recent turmoil, it seemed like Pinterest was bound for nothing but success.

Case

One of the most recent disputes that happened with the company was African Americans reported that they were not being treated fairly in the workplace. In the summer of 2020 reports broke out that they had been racially discriminating against its employees. The two front runners of this headline were Aerica Shimizu Banks and Ifeoma Ozoma. According to Banks in May of 2019, she joined Pinterest as a public policy and social impact manager. She states that “her career not only didn't grow, but it was also stifled… periods of glaringly unfair pay, intense discrimination and terrifying retaliation” (Discrimination). From the start, it was nothing but the discrimination that eventually led to death threats and failed to be given raises and higher positions than they had earned based on the work they had put in. At the first team dinner that Banks reported going to, she said she began to feel uncomfortable Charlie Hale the manager was throwing around racist comments and made jokes about Jewish colleagues.

Banks has stated that she has reported these events to HR several times but they deemed that “Hale did not act inappropriately” (discrimination) which is kind of shocking due to the fact of him making multiple racist remarks. Banks kept finding herself doing stuff that was outside of her pay grade so she asked for promotion guidance in which “ It took weeks for him to respond and when he did he mentioned needing a certain number of years tenure to get a bigger title” (discrimination). Banks was unaware of this since she was just told to kill it and she would receive a raise and her ranks would increase no matter how long she was with the company. One of the biggest things Banks said she had to overcome was the retaliation every time she would write something up and send it in it was met with a different opinion.

Banks had crafted a policy to allow them holiday pay to all employees. According to the company “ they were going to adopt that policy but later Banks learned that the proposal; had embarrassed an upper manager” (Discrimination). After this Banks said she had fired all the consultants due to the fact of them misleading the senior executive about involvement in the policy. It was all downhill from that point “Banks was stripped of her responsibilities” (Discrimination) and all the promotions that were in talks were gone and her career was put at a standstill. She was so depressed that her doctor prescribed her antidepressants which she had never taken before in her life.

Moving on to Ozoma’s side of the story her troubling experience began nearly one year into her time with Pinterest. “One of the long-standing issues with the tech industry is the seniority level that women and minorities tend to be assigned… Men are more likely to begin a job in a higher position with larger pay than women are and that's one of the many reasons they are paid up to 20% more” (Discrimination). She was given many high reviews by employees and people of higher ranks so she asked for a pay raise which she received but still not satisfied she wanted to be credited with a higher rank and she was denied. She ended up hiring a lawyer to get her rank increased in which she did which came with another pay raise.

 Later Ozoma’s personal documents were leaked by another employee; it had “linked her name to a far-right political group and shared personal information… she received death and rape threats and random people showed up at her house” (Discrimination). In ordered to get it straightened out Pinterest overfeed to send security to her house which she thought was “absolutely ridiculous” she wanted all of the information wiped off the web but Pinterest wouldn't do that so she had to call former employees at Facebook and Google to aid her in this process while also working with a news intelligence agency. Both Ozoma and Banks ended up quitting in May of 2020 and filed separate DFEh complaints but when they saw the company speak up about the Black Lives matter they decided it was time to put their story out to the public.

The future of most companies relies on their stakeholders and the people who invest in the company. These people help fund big projects companies might be working on and allow them to stay in business. Pinterest had just gone public approximately a year before this whole situation happened; they were valued at around 10 billion dollars and they were to be sold at around 15 to 17 dollars a share. “ Pinterest will use a dual-class structure to concentrate on voting power among major stakeholders including co-founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp. These stakeholders will own class B shares and the rest class A shares” (stakeholder). This system will better help the decision-making system and give the major stakeholders more power to make decisions.

Stakeholders

Some of the major players in the Pinterest stake start with “Andreessen Horowitz who owns approximately 43,500,000 shares which is 9.6% valued at 696,621,296.00 dollars. The next major player would be the company's CEO Ben Silbermann who owns 51,600,000 shares which equates to 11.4% and is valued at 826,107,456.00 dollars. The biggest stakeholder in the company is the Bessemer Venture Partners who own about 59,500,000 which is 12.1% and is valued at over 951,330,000.00 dollars” (Stakeholder). There are several other class B stockholders but those are the 3 most important with the most to gain and lose due to the treatment of minorities at Pinterest.

One of the four major ethical topics that I will discuss is Utilitarianism. A utilitarian has a very different outlook on ethical theories than the other three. So concerning this Pinterest case, a utilitarian would view this case as unethical. “Business actions should aim to maximize the happiness in the long run for all conscious beings that are affected by the business action” (Heather). With Pinterest not treating each employee equally in terms of pay and position and some employees making racist remarks, it doesn't fit the outlook of maximizing everyone's happiness.

When looking at the case I'm not sure how much of this gets up to the higher-ups and the CEO but Utilitarianism is considered “an excellent theory that takes a stakeholder approach” (Heather 19). So this approach would mean they care very much for the people that are invested in the company but after news like this getting out into the public, it hurts everyone involved so it is more of a reason for this to not line up with the utilitarian approach. 

Utilitarianism

The utilitarian approach also states that “ utilitarians are concerned about long term costs and benefits of actions. This systematic and long-range perspective can help the business avoid short-sided thinking that often boots profits momentarily but leads to a quick demise” (Heather 20). If this case were to get some major publicity in the news it could be a long road ahead for the future of Pinterest especially nowadays with the social injustice that the world is facing. I think as a company they knew this was a possibility so they reacted as quickly as they possibly could and put out articles saying that they were hiring more minorities in the company and making sure stuff like this doesn't happen again.

The next major point of Utilitarianism is “Business should aim to maximize happiness in the long run for all conscious beings” (Heather 17). In this case, the way the two employees get treated I'm sure doesn't make them feel good or happy in any way.  Which in result causes them to have some sort of resentment towards Pinterest which leads them to speak out and parting ways from the company.

The last major point of Utilitarianism is “Pleasure with the absence of pain” (Heather 17). This is very important to the case because a utilitarian would want employees to enjoy their job and not have to worry about being profiled and singled out but that is the way Pinterest is making them feel.

Kantism

The next major ethical topic that I will relate to the case is Kantism. Kantism is the complete opposite of Utilitarianism “Kantism does not make decisions based on consequences” (Heather 21). So when Hale was making those racist remarks at the dinner a Kant wouldn’t be looking at the remarks he was looking at the person who made the remarks and determining if that person had goodwill or not. I'm sure when Hale made those jokes he was aware of his intentions and had no goodwill intended towards anyone thus not following a Kantian point of view.

The next major point in Kantism is the formulation of humanity which states “that it is wrong to use people as a mere means to get what you want” (Heather 22). I think in this case the employees are simply being used by the company they are being required to do more work than what their rank and pay require them to do while also being treated very unfairly by their co-workers and the higher up.

The last major point of Kantism is “rational decision making… don't lie, cheat or manipulate or harm others to get your way” (Heather 17). In this case, there really is no rational decision making going on. It's more so just do this and accept it and employees are doing a lot of extra work. In the case, it also states that Banks was forced to take antidepressants and that is harming someone to get your way. If the company is getting her to a point where she has to start taking medication to help the way she feels that in no way supports the Kantian theory.

Individualism

The third major ethical theory is Individualism. This one an individualist would view this case as ethical due to the fact of them supporting business. One of the major points of individualism is “Business actions should maximize profits for the owners of the business but do so within the law” (Heather 17). A lot of the stuff that they are doing isn't necessarily correct but they are making their employees work and help grow the business while not breaking any laws. Some might have to do some extra work and you might not get a pay increase but by no means is it illegal.

Another major individualist theory is “The rules of the market and supply and demands economically regulate how much employees should make and what benefits the company needs to offer” (Heather 18). In the case, it didn't talk much about what kind of benefits were being offered by Pinterest but the pay must have been comparable to what Banks and Ozoma were making at their other tech company jobs. I'm sure if the salary for the position moved in one direction they might get a raise in pay since they would lose employees because everyone wants to make more money.

The last major point to bring up for individualism is “individualism is the only theory among the four that is specific to the business context” (Heather 18). That is the reason why this theory supports the case so much because the case is more about furthering the business no matter who gets affected by what happens. As a business that's all you really care about you want to keep employees happy but the most important thing is making money for your business.

Virtue Theory

The last ethical theory to cover is the virtue theory one of the major points id “act so as to embody a variety of virtuous or good character traits and so as to avoid bad character traits” (Heather 17). Pinterest's way of handling the company's racial issues showed poor character traits as a company they didn't really do much until after the story broke.

This theory differs from the other three because it deals with “ a person's character while the others deal with people's actions” (Heather 22). The actions that were taken by each of the two employees is very courageous and definitely falls in line with what Virtue theory believes in. For them to stand up for what they believe in is very powerful they could have risked getting fired from the company and ruining their reputation which would hurt them in getting a future job.

Justified Evaluation

The whole case in my opinion is very unethical and should not have happened in a business today. Today's society has broken out with an outcry of several forms of racial injustice and many public figures have spoken up about how we as people need to be better and treat people equally. Some of the biggest names appear in sports leagues, Influencers on social media, actors, and in numerous other professions. When it began happening the first time Banks should have been more vocal about it and they should have taken it as a learning curve and know that they need to do better for their employees. But when they began to compound it and more people with the company began speaking up that's where I feel that it really breaks the line of being unethical. Whenever something like this happens within a company it should come to the top of the list on how it needs to be changed because when it breaks it hugely affects the company and if you don't have a good foundation it could cause companies to go under.

One of their major positives that had come out of this situation was the fact that Pinterest did learn about employees being treated unfairly. If they chose to use this information to make the company a better environment is up to them but from the sounds of it appears that the CEO has started making progressive steps towards bettering the company for the future. With that being said Pinterest is still a new social media company in comparison and has a lot of learning to do but this instance will help them make better choices going forward.

Pinterest is a very big social media platform but it does not make the news very often with negative publicity. Although this treatment of workers was definitely unfair it is still one of the first major hiccups that they had to deal with. Some points of action that I think they will have to take moving forward are just better treatment of employees. According to their website, the motto is “to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love” (Pinterest). To do this they need to straighten up the workplace and they need to provide stakeholders with their appropriate compensation. When this is the motto that you display on the pages of your website it needs to be something that you live by because if you don't it's kind of hypocritical. I’d find it hard to believe that all the higher-ups in the company were totally unaware of what was happening behind closed doors. It was essentially their job to know that kind of stuff.

Action Plan

The things that they need to do to resolve this problem start with bringing in new diverse employees. They need to give different power positions to a diverse group of individuals so if someone has a problem with the pay they can take it to a boss then it gets discussed by a group of individuals with very different backgrounds. The next step they need to take is to provide a clear outline of things to do when you get hired in the company to move up and get higher pay. The method of just working harder never works. They need to have it written out and it needs to be understood by prospective employees looking for a job. The third step that needs to be taken is they need more a relationship between workers and bosses and bosses to the higher-ups. The chain of communication needs to be more fluent because if someone has a problem it should be easily communicated throughout the company and it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

My improved mission statement for Pinterest would be “Creating an equal opportunity for everyone”. This is a good statement for them to follow because it shows that they care about all of their employees and they want them to be treated equally and have the same type of job promotions as everyone else in the company. It is a huge improvement because their motto just talks about people making a life they love but with mine, it shows that they are a diverse company and they are willing to bring in people of different ethnic groups to work for them.  

A new set of core values for Pinterest in my opinion would start with equality. They need people to know that they are changing as a company. The next value to incorporate would be fairness. It shows that no matter where you start or what position you work in you are going to be treated the same as someone in a higher position and a lower position. The last core value that I would integrate into the company would be creativity. When you work at a company such as this one creativity is a big thing so people need to come in knowing they have the creative freedom to try new things and present new ideas to the board regardless of how out of pocket they might be.

To maintain an ethical type of productivity they should start by having company meetings once or twice a week to make sure everyone is on the same page. In the meeting, you can bring up anything that relates to the workplace. It can relate to how you feel you've been overworked or you feel someone isn't doing their share. They should also set aside time for maybe a personal meeting once a month with employees to discuss more personal matters such as time off bonus or pay. When you bring in new employees and fire them make sure it's a group decision don't just fire someone because you don't like them or their views don't align with yours.

Different kinds of marketing the company can do are showing their support for different ethnic groups by donating money by just having members show their support in person or on social media. Make ads that relate to what they are trying to change within the company to show people that hey they may have done this but this is what they are doing to better themselves. This plan going forward could be very important to help Pinterest move forward and get past the bump that they faced with the injustice. It could also expand their outreach of individuals because people are very supportive of a company that also supports what they believe in. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, several companies go through different kinds of turmoil when you are looked at so highly in the public eye especially social media companies because those are the ones that are closely monitored. They need to start bringing in new ideas with new employees to help improve their public eye and get them back on track. As of right now, their stock price is at a five-year high so the improvements that have been made have been good for the business. I’m not so sure this will be Pinterest's last time in the news over something controversial because that is what happens in almost all companies but I don't think it will ruin the company due to this one having a very small impact on it. I just hope going forward in business they are more careful with the decisions that they try to make and weigh the pros and the cons and are positive that that's the route they want to take.

-Dustin Kuhner

Works Cited

• Bort, Julie. “The Two Black Employees Who Took on Pinterest Explain Why They Quit, Their Fight for Pay, the Death Threats, the Private Investigator: 'It Was a Torturous Experience'.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 24 June 2020, www.businessinsider.com/two-black-former-pinterest-employees-discuss-their-fight-for-pay-2020-6.

  
  

• Carlson, Nicholas. “Pinterest CEO: Here's How We Became The Web's Next Big Thing [DECK].” Business Insider, Business Insider, 24 Apr. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-founding-story-2012-4. 

  
  

• Feiner, Lauren. “Here's Who Will Get Rich from Pinterest's IPO.” CNBC, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/pinterest-ipo-the-largest-shareholders.html. 

• “How Pinterest Became an $11 Billion Company by Organizing the World's Hobbies.” Product Habits, 17 Sept. 2018, producthabits.com/how-pinterest-became-an-11-billion-company-by-organizing-the-worlds-hobbies/.

  
  

• Madrigal, Alexis C. “Think Pinterest Is Stupid? This Interview Might Change Your Mind.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 31 July 2014, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/what-is-pinterest-a-database-of-intentions/375365/

• Myrow, Rachael. “Pinterest Sounds A More Contrite Tone After Black Former Employees Speak Out.” NPR, NPR, 23 June 2020, www.npr.org/2020/06/23/881624553/pinterest-sounds-a-more-contrite-tone-after-black-former-employees-speak-out.