Clarke’s dilemma

After his promotion and marriage, Clarke had been in a state of euphoria. The meeting with Carter and the subsequent memorandum came as quite a shock. However, in retrospect, Clarke believed that he should have seen it coming:

I should have realized that trouble was brewing at the September 28 marketing plan review meeting. At the meeting, I was not as optimistic about the future as Carter thought I should be. However, everywhere I went, brokerage firm executives were complaining about excess computer capacity. At the meeting. Carter assigned 1974 performance commitments for all market development specialists. I expressed concern that my goals would be impossible to achieve. After the meeting, Carter called me aside and gave me a pitch on the huge growth opportunities of our market. I nodded my head but after 2 weeks visiting our customers, I had been more optimistic at the meeting than what I had seen made me want to be.

As he sat at his desk looking at the copy of Carter’s memorandum, Clarke recalled Dawson’s advice about his new position:

Conrad Dawson warned me that I was entering a political situation. He told me that Carter was not exactly overjoyed with my promotion; he had wanted to promote a market development specialist to my position.

If I have a sponsor in this organization, it has to be Conrad. He took a high risk promoting me despite Carter’s objection. However, he told me that he expected my performance, and not our relationship, to be the key to my next advancement.

Clarke acknowledged that he had not been very concerned with politics when he assumed the new position; his only concern had been with understanding his new duties as quickly as possible. But what should he do now? Should he arrange a meeting with Dawson? Should he respond in writing? Should he avoid rocking the boat and do exactly what Carter tells him even when he is convinced it is a waste of time? Should he try to move laterally to another group in Universal Computers? Should he send out his resume to other firms? These were simply a few of the questions on his mind after rereading Carter’s memorandum. Next week he, his wife, and their belongings would settle into a new house on Long Island. He thought the fall would prove rather interesting.