MASMT3-2

2001 Prof. Mary Rowe, MIT, Cambridge, MA

TERRY AND JOSEPHINE AT NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEMS

(General Instructions)

Joe Abernathy and Josephine McNair were assigned together to a top-secret research group at Navigational Systems. They looked at each other with amusement when they met. Each had been told by a mutual friend back at Cal Tech that they really ought to meet; each had been too busy to follow-up on this matchmaking by a fellow alumnus. In a way it was surprising they hadn't met before—though Josephine had finished her doctorate in physics several years before Joe got his in electrical engineering—because they'd been working on similar problems at Navigational Systems. In fact they each worked out very well in the new group. Sunny and cheerful and a little bit zany, they were particularly well-liked by their colleagues. Over the course of several years, several things went well. Their research really took off. They each took advantage of all that the company offered and both were really happy at Navigational Systems. Also—they fell in love and got married. Each, however, was extraordinarily circumspect and professional in behavior; their colleagues had been surprised when they got married. And, in fact, the marriage appeared to cause no tension to anyone. Alas, however, it all came apart when the Division Chief, Terry Hardel, called in Joe one day, to appoint him to be a new Group Manager. Navigational Systems suddenly had a chance to bid on a huge new contract working on advanced air traffic control problems. The group was therefore splitting up. Joe, the group's best electrical engineer, was the obvious person to manage the new group which would include the section where Joe and Josephine worked. However, Joe was told, his promotion would of course mean moving Josephine. Since Josephine could not report directly to Joe, management had decided to move her to entirely different work, in fact to a different Navigational Systems location in the city. Joe and Josephine talked that night, and then Josephine went in to see the Division Chief, Terry Hardel.