Fidelity and other money managers may face a flood of complaints “now that the lid is off,” said Davia Temin, president and CEO of Temin & Co., a New York based crisis-management company.
Going forward, Johnson has to continue to “set the tone” that the organization will take every case that comes to light seriously and emphasize there’s also a business case for doing so, said Temin. While Fidelity is a closely held company without public shareholders, its customer base cares about these issues, she said. Some public pension funds already demand that women be included on teams that manage their money.
Weinstein Fallout
The recent scandal involving movie producer Harvey Weinstein may also be emboldening some employees in various industries to come forward and encouraging companies to act swiftly, said Denise Murphy, chair of the labor and employment group at Rubin & Rudman, a Boston law firm.
“With all the publicity surrounding Harvey Weinstein, victims of sexual harassment are feeling empowered and not feeling alone,” Murphy said. “And employers, like Fidelity, are stepping up to address it head on.”
Johnson is in a high-profile but challenging position as she tries to ensure a diverse and respectful workplace for employees.
“Some people expect that a woman CEO will be more of an advocate of other women in her firm,” said Temin. “That is mostly true, but sometimes the expectations are set too high, that she can fix all of this with a wave of her wand by 2018, and make it all go away.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.