Three months ago, Maxwell Enterprises hired a consultant, Stacy Slone, to assist in the design and installation of a new management information system for the company. Mike Carns, one of Maxwell’s systems design engineers, was assigned to work with Slone on the project. During the three-month period, Slone and Carns met six times and developed a tentative design and installation plan for the MIS. Before the plan was to be unveiled to top management, Carns asked his supervisor, Todd Bowman, to look it over and comment on the design.

Included in the plan was the consolidation of three engineering functions into one. Both of the supervisors of the other two functions had seniority over Bowman, so he believed that the design would lead to his losing his management position. He communicated this to Carns and ended his comments with the following statement: “If you don’t redesign the system to accommodate all three of the existing engineering functions, I will give you an unsatisfactory performance evaluation for this year!”

How should Carns respond to Bowman’s assertion? Should he handle the problem alone, keeping it inside the company, or communicate the comment to Slone? Outline Carns’s options, and be prepared to discuss them in class.