Bob Knowlton was sitting alone in the conference room of the laboratory. The rest of the group had gone. One of the secretaries had stopped and talked for a while about her husband’s coming induction in the Army, and had finally left. Knowlton, alone in the laboratory, slid a little farther down in his chair, looking with satisfaction at the results of the first test run of the new photon unit. He liked to stay after the others had gone. His appointment as project head was still new enough to give him a deep sense of pleasure. His eyes were on the graphs before him, but in his mind, he could hear Dr. Jerrold, the head of the laboratory, saying again, “There’s one thing about this place that you can bank on. The sky is the limit for a person who can produce.” Knowlton felt again the tingle of happiness and embarrassment. Well, dammit, he said to himself, he had produced. He had come to Simmons Laboratories two years ago. During a routine testing of some rejected Clanson components he had stumbled on the idea of the photon correlator, and the rest just happened. Jerrold had been enthusiastic; a separate project had been set up for further research and development of the device, and he had gotten the job of running it. The whole sequence of events still seemed a little miraculous to Knowlton.
He had shrugged off his reverie and bent determinedly over the sheets when he heard someone come into the room behind him. He looked up expectantly. Jerrold often stayed late himself, and now and then dropped in for a chat. This always made his day’s end especially pleasant. But it wasn’t Jerrold. The man who had come in was a stranger. He was tall, thin, and rather dark. He wore steel-rimmed glasses and had on a very wide leather belt with a large brass buckle. The stranger smiled and introduced himself. “I’m Simon Fester. Are you Bob Knowlton?” Bob said “yes,” and they shook hands. “Doctor Jerrold said I might find you in. We were talking about your work, and I’m very much interested in what you’re doing.” Knowlton waved him to a chair. Fester didn’t seem to belong in any of the standard categories of visitors: customer, visiting fireman, shareholder. Bob pointed to the sheets on the table. “These are the preliminary results of a test we’re running. We’ve got a new gadget by the tail and we’re trying to understand it. It’s not finished, but I can show you the section that we’re testing.” He stood up, but Fester was deeply engrossed in the graphs. After a moment he looked up with an odd grin. “These look like plots of a Jennings surface. I’ve been playing around with some autocorrelation functions of surfaces—you know that stuff.” Knowlton, who had no idea what Fester was referring to, grinned back and nodded, and immediately felt uncomfortable. “Let me show you the monster,” he said, and led the way to the workroom.
After Fester left, Knowlton slowly put the graphs away, feeling vaguely annoyed. Then, as if he had made a decision, he quickly locked up and took the long way out so that he would pass Jerrold’s office. But the office was locked. Knowlton wondered whether Jerrold and Fester had left together.
The next morning Knowlton dropped into Jerrold’s office, mentioned that he had talked with Fester, and asked who he was.
“Sit down for a minute,” Jerrold said. “I want to talk to you about him. What do you think of him?” Knowlton replied truthfully that he thought Fester was very bright and probably very competent. Jerrold looked pleased.
“We’re taking him on,” he said. “He has a very good background at a number of laboratories, and he seems to have ideas about the problems we’re tackling here.” Knowlton nodded in agreement, instantly wishing that Fester not be placed with him.
“I don’t know yet where he will finally land,” Jerrold continued, “but he seems interested in what you’re doing. I thought he might spend a little time with you by way of getting started.” Knowlton nodded thoughtfully. “If his interest in your work continues, you can add him to your group.”
“Well, he seemed to have some good ideas even without knowing exactly what we are doing,” Knowlton answered. “I hope he stays; I’d be glad to have him.”
Knowlton walked back to the lab with mixed feelings. He told himself that Fester would be good for the group. He was no dunce; he’d produce. Knowlton thought again of Jerrold’s promise when he had promoted him: “The person who produces gets ahead in this outfit.” The words now seemed to him to carry the overtones of a threat.
The next day, Fester didn’t appear until midafternoon. He explained that he had had a long lunch with Jerrold, discussing his place in the lab. “Yes,” said Knowlton, “I talked with him this morning about it, and we both thought you might work with my group for a while.
Fester smiled in the same knowing way that he had smiled when he mentioned the Jennings surfaces. “I’d like to,” he said.
Knowlton introduced Fester to the other members of the lab. Fester and John Link, the mathematician of the group, hit it off well together. They spent the rest of the afternoon discussing a method of analysis of patterns that Link had been worrying over for the past month.
It was 6:30 when Knowlton finally left the lab that night. He had waited almost eagerly for the end of the day to come—when all the lab personnel would all be gone and he could sit in the quiet room, relax, and think it over. “Think what over?” he asked himself. He didn’t know. Shortly after 5:00 they had all gone except Fester, and what followed was almost a duel. Knowlton was annoyed that he was being cheated out of his quiet period, and finally resentful, determined that Fester should leave first.
Fester was sitting at the conference table reading, and Knowlton was sitting at his desk in the little glass-enclosed office that he used during the day when he needed to be undisturbed. Fester had gotten last year’s progress reports out and was studying them carefully. Time dragged. Knowlton doodled on a pad, the tension growing inside him. What the hell did Fester think he was going to find in the reports?
Knowlton finally gave up, and they left the lab together. Fester took several of the reports with him to study that evening. Knowlton asked him if he thought the reports gave a clear picture of the lab’s activities.
“They’re excellent,” Fester answered with obvious sincerity. “They’re not only good reports; what they report is damn good too!” Knowlton was surprised at the relief he felt, and grew almost jovial as he said goodnight.
Driving home, Knowlton felt more optimistic about Fester’s presence in the lab. He had never fully understood the analysis that Link was attempting. If there was anything wrong with Link’s approach, Fester would probably spot it.
“And if I’m any judge,” he thought, “he won’t be especially diplomatic about it.”
He described Fester to his wife, Lucy, who was amused by the broad leather belt and the brass buckle.
“It’s the kind of belt the Pilgrims must have worn,” she laughed.
“I’m not worried about how he holds his pants up,” Knowlton laughed with her. “I’m afraid that he’s the kind that just has to make like a genius twice each day. And that can be pretty rough on the group.”
Knowlton had been asleep for several hours when he was jarred awake by the telephone. He realized it had rung several times. He swung off the bed, muttering about damn fools and telephones. It was Fester. Without any excuses, apparently oblivious of the time, he plunged into an excited recital of how Link’s patterning problem could be solved.
Knowlton covered the mouthpiece to answer his wife’s stage whisper, “Who is it?” “It’s the genius.”
Fester, completely ignoring the fact that it was 2:00 in the morning, proceeded excitedly to explain a completely new approach to certain of the photon lab problems that he had stumbled onto while analyzing some past experiments. Knowlton managed to put some enthusiasm in his own voice and stood there, still half-dazed and very uncomfortable, listening to Fester talk endlessly, it seemed, about what he had discovered. He said that he not only had a new approach but also an analysis that showed how inherently weak the previous experiment was. He finally concluded by saying that further experimentation along that earlier line certainly would have been inconclusive.
The following morning, Knowlton spent the entire morning with Fester and Link, the usual morning group meeting having been called off so that Fester’s work of the previous night could be gone over intensively. Fester was very anxious that this be done, and Knowlton wasn’t too unhappy to call the meeting off for reasons of his own.
For the next several days, Fester sat in the back office that had been turned over to him and did nothing but read the progress reports of the work that had been done in the last six months. Knowlton caught himself feeling apprehensive about the reaction that Fester might have to some of his work. He was a little surprised at his own feelings. He had always been proud—although he had put on a convincingly modest face—of the way his team had broken new ground in the study of photon measuring devices. Now he wasn’t sure. It seemed to him that Fester might easily show that the line of research they had been following was unsound or even unimaginative.
The next morning, as was customary, the members of Knowlton’s group, including the secretaries, sat around the table in the conference room for a group meeting. He had always prided himself on the fact that the team as a whole guided and evaluated its work. He would point out that often what started out as a boring recital of fundamental assumptions to a naïve listener uncovered new ways of regarding these assumptions that wouldn’t have occurred to the lab member who had long ago accepted them as a necessary basis for the research he was doing. These group meetings also served another purpose. He admitted to himself that he would have felt far less secure if he had had to direct the work completely on his own. Team meetings, as a principle of leadership, justified the exploration of blind alleys because of the general educative effect of the team. Fester and Link were there, as were Lucy Martin and Martha Ybarra. Link sat next to Fester, the two of them continuing their conversation concerning Link’s mathematical study from yesterday. The other group members, Bob Davenport, George Thurlow, and Arthur Oliver, sat there waiting quietly.
Knowlton, for reasons that he didn’t quite understand, brought up a problem that all of them had previously spent a great deal of time discussing. The team had come to an implicit conclusion that a solution was impossible and that there was no feasible way of treating it experimentally. Davenport remarked that there was hardly any use going over it again. He was satisfied that there was no way of approaching the problem with the equipment and the physical capacities of the lab.
This statement had the effect of a shot of adrenaline on Fester. He said he would like to know in detail what the problem was, and walking to the blackboard, began both discussing the problem and simultaneously listing the reasons why it had been abandoned. Very early in the description of the problem it became evident that Fester was going to disagree about the impossibility of solving it. The group realized this and finally the descriptive materials and their recounting of the reasoning that had led to its abandonment dwindled away. Fester began his analysis, which as it proceeded might have well been prepared the previous night although Knowlton knew that to be impossible. He couldn’t help being impressed with the organized and logical way that Fester was presenting ideas that must have occurred to him only a few minutes before.
However, Fester said some things that left Knowlton with a mixture of annoyance, irritation, and, at the same time, a rather smug feeling of superiority in at least one area. Fester was of the opinion that the way that the problem had been analyzed was typical of what happened when such thinking was attempted by a team, and with an air of sophistication that made it difficult for a listener to dissent, he proceeded to make general comments on the American emphasis on team ideas, satirically describing the ways in which they led to a “high level of mediocrity.”
Knowlton observed that Link stared studiously at the floor and was conscious of George Thurlow’s and Bob Davenport’s glances at him at several points during Fester’s little speech. Inwardly, Knowlton couldn’t help feeling that this was one point at least in which Fester was off on the wrong foot. The whole lab, following Dr. Jerrold’s lead, talked, if not actually practiced, the theory of small research teams as the basic organization for effective research. Fester insisted that the problem could be solved and that he would like to study it for a while himself.
Knowlton ended the session by remarking that the meetings would continue and that the very fact that a supposedly insoluble experimental problem was now going to get another look was yet another indication of the value of such meetings. Fester immediately remarked that he was not at all averse to meetings for the purpose of informing the group of the progress of its members. He went on to say that the point he wanted to make was that creative advances were seldom accomplished in such meetings, that they were made by the individual “living with” the problem closely and continuously, forming a sort of personal relationship with it. Knowlton responded by saying that he was glad Fester had raised these points and that he was sure the team would profit by reexamining the basis on which they had been operating. Knowlton agreed that individual effort was probably the basis for making major advances but that he considered the group meetings useful primarily because of the effect they had on keeping the team together and on helping the weaker members of the team keep up with the advances of the ones who were able to move more easily and quickly when analyzing problems.
As days went by and the meetings continued, Fester came to enjoy them because of the direction the meetings soon took. Typically, Fester would hold forth on some subject, and it became clear that he was, without question, more brilliant and better prepared on the topics germane to the problems being studied. He probably was more capable of going ahead on his own than anyone there, and Knowlton grew increasingly disturbed as he realized that his leadership of the team had been, in fact, taken over. In Knowlton’s occasional meetings with Dr. Jerrold, whenever Fester was mentioned, he would comment only on Fester’s ability and obvious capacity for work, somehow never quite feeling that he could mention his own discomforts. He felt that they revealed a weakness on his own part. Moreover, Dr. Jerrold was greatly impressed with Fester’s work and with the contacts he had with Fester outside the photon laboratory.
Knowlton began to feel that the intellectual advantages that Fester had brought to the team might not quite compensate for evidences of a breakdown in the cooperative spirit that had been evident in the group before Fester’s coming. More and more of the morning meetings were skipped. Fester’s opinion concerning the abilities of others of the team, with the exception of Link’s, was obviously low. At times during morning meetings or in smaller discussions, he had been rude, refusing at certain times to pursue an argument when he claimed that it was based on the other person’s ignorance of the facts involved. His impatience with the others also led him to make remarks of this kind to Dr. Jerrold. This Knowlton inferred from a conversation he had had with Jerrold. The head of the lab had asked whether Davenport and Oliver were going to be retained, but he hadn’t mentioned Link. This conversation led Knowlton to believe that Fester had had private conversations with Jerrold.
Knowlton had little difficulty making a convincing case regarding whether Fester’s brilliance actually was sufficient recompense for the beginning of his team’s breaking up. He spoke privately with Davenport and Oliver. Both clearly were uncomfortable with Fester’s presence. Knowlton didn’t press the discussion beyond hearing them in one way or another say that they sometimes felt awkward around Fester. They said that sometimes they had difficulty understanding the arguments he advanced. In fact, they often felt too embarrassed to ask Fester to state the grounds on which he based such arguments. Knowlton didn’t talk to Link in this manner.
About six months after Fester’s coming to the photon lab, meetings were scheduled at which the sponsors of much of the ongoing research were coming to get some idea of its progress. At special meetings, project heads customarily presented the research being conducted by their groups. The other members of the laboratory groups were invited to other, more general meetings later in the day and open to all. The special meetings usually were restricted to project heads, the head of the laboratory, and the sponsors. As the time for his special meeting approached, Knowlton felt that he must avoid the presentation at all costs. He felt that he couldn’t present the ideas that Fester had advanced—and on which some work had been done—in sufficient detail and answer questions about them. However, he didn’t feel that he could ignore these newer lines of work and present only the work that had been started or completed before Fester’s arrival (which he felt perfectly competent to do). It seemed clear that keeping Fester from attending the meeting wouldn’t be easy in spite of the fact that he wasn’t on the administrative level that had been invited. Knowlton also felt that it wouldn’t be beyond Fester, in his blunt and undiplomatic way, if he was present at the meeting, to comment on Knowlton’s presentation and reveal the inadequacy that he felt.
Knowlton found an opportunity to speak to Jerrold and raised the question. He remarked to Jerold that, of course, with the interest in the work and Fester’s contributions he probably would like to come to these meetings. Knowlton said that he was concerned about the feelings of the others in the group if Fester were invited. Jerrold brushed this concern aside by saying that he felt the group would understand Fester’s rather different position. He thought that, by all means, Fester should be invited. Knowlton then immediately said that he had thought so too and further that Fester should make the presentation because much of it was work that he had done. As Knowlton put it, this would be a nice way to recognize Fester’s contributions and to reward him because he was eager to be recognized as a productive member of the lab. Jerrold agreed, and so the matter was decided.
Fester’s presentation was very successful and, in some ways, dominated the meeting. He held the interest and attention of those attending, and following his presentation the questions persisted for a long period. Later that evening at the banquet, to which the entire laboratory was invited, a circle of people formed about Fester during the cocktail period before the dinner. Jerrold was part of the circle and discussion concerning the application of the theory Fester was proposing. Although this attention disturbed Knowlton, he reacted and behaved characteristically. He joined the circle, praised Fester to Jerrold and the others, and remarked how able and brilliant some of his work was.
Knowlton, without consulting anyone, began to consider the possibility of a job elsewhere. After a few weeks, he found that a new laboratory of considerable size was being organized in a nearby city. His training and experience would enable him to get a project-head job equivalent to the one he had at the lab, with slightly more money.
When it was offered, he immediately accepted the job and sent a written notification to Jerrold via e-mail on a Friday night. The e-mail was brief, and Jerrold was stunned. The e-mail merely said that Knowlton had found a better position; that there were personal reasons why he didn’t want to work at the lab anymore; that he would be glad to come back later (he would be only 40 miles away) to assist if there were any problems with the past work; that he felt sure that Fester could, however, supply any leadership that was required for the group; and that his decision to leave so suddenly was based on some personal problems (he hinted at family health problems involving his mother and father, which were fictitious). Dr. Jerrold took it at face value but still felt that Knowlton’s behavior was very strange and quite unaccountable. Jerrold had always felt that his relationship with Knowlton had been warm, that Knowlton was satisfied and, as a matter of fact, quite happy and productive.
Jerrold was considerably disturbed because he had already decided to place Fester in charge of another project that was going to be set up soon. He had been wondering how to explain this decision to Knowlton in view of the obvious help, assistance, and value Knowlton had been getting from Fester and the high regard in which Knowlton held him. In fact, Jerrold had considered letting Knowlton add to his staff another person with Fester’s background and training, which apparently had proved so valuable.
Jerrold did not make any attempt to contact Knowlton. In a way, he felt aggrieved about the whole thing. Fester, too, was surprised at the suddenness of Knowlton’s departure and when Jerrold, in talking to him, asked him whether he preferred to stay with the photon group rather than to head the Air Force project that was being organized, he chose the Air Force project and moved into that job the following week. The photon lab was hard hit. The leadership of the photon group was given to Link, with the understanding that it would be temporary until someone else could be brought in to take over.
Questions

1. One might say that there was a “personality” clash between Knowlton and Fester. Using what you know about personality types, describe possible reasons for this clash.
2. What leadership style did Knowlton need from Dr. Jerrold after Fester arrived? Did he receive this? Explain.
3. Was Knowlton’s team effective before Fester arrived? After Fester arrived? Why? Why not?
4. What changes in conflict management should Dr. Jerrold make to prevent another Knowlton problem?

Sample Solution