Dr. Elizabeth Clarke was in her office late one evening, reviewing overtime reports from the previous month. As chair of the surgery department at University Hospital, she was responsible for overseeing the entire team of surgeons, nurses, and staff of the different surgical divisions within the department and ensuring the smooth operation of the overall surgical service.

Overtime costs had been higher over the past several months, often as a result of extra cases added to the schedule by Dr. Jamie Thompson, one of the surgeons recently hired in the general surgery division. Dr. Clarke knew that the hospital budget office (not to mention the staff who had to stay late in the operating room) wouldn’t be happy about the overtime, but she was also proud of the results—both in terms of volume as well as patient outcomes and satisfaction scores—the department had been getting, and she couldn’t help attributing some of those gains to the hiring of Thompson.

Does Jamie Thompson exhibit political skill?