http://bhorowitz.com/2010/08/23/how-to-minimize-politics-in-...
I enjoy Ben's blog post because talks about a more general company problem (politics), and gives guidance and process on how to avoid politics.
if you manage a junior employee and they ask you about their career development, you can say what comes naturally and generally get away with it. As we saw above, things change when you deal with highly ambitious, seasoned professionals.
I've worked with Ben and I know that if a highly-valued technical contributor turned in a resignation he would make a counter-offer to keep them.