Step 1: Review Turnip Plaza Hotel CaseStep 2: Gather and Analyze InformationStep 3: Focus on Your Rationale and Conclusions: Create Your OutlineStep 4: Communicate Your Findings and Conclusions to the VP: Create Your ReportStep 5: Review Colossal’s International Legal ChallengesStep 6: Gather and Analyze the InformationStep 7: Engage in the International Legal Challenges DiscussionStep 8: Submit Your Work
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The Turnip Plaza Hotel
Mark Piper was employed for several years as a tour guide at the Turnip Plaza Hotel in Port Austin, Michigan. Turnip Plaza is one of Colossal Corporation’s luxury hotel holdings, strategically located near Lake Huron’s famous Turnip Rock. Over the years, Mark developed a reputation as one of the most skillful tour guides in Michigan. He would guide tourists through extreme kayaking, hiking, and camping adventures in and around the Great Lakes. He was often requested by name by tourists visiting the hotel and was featured on extreme sports television. His high adventure kayaking tours brought in significant revenue for the hotel.
One month ago, Mark was approached by Stacey Nguyen, the manager of the Huron Overnight Inn—a rival company of Turnip Plaza. Stacey offered Mark a substantial salary increase to leave Turnip Plaza and come to work for her. Mark agreed to think about this offer and get back to Stacey in 48 hours. When he returned to Turnip Plaza, he asked several of his colleagues what they thought about the offer. One of them immediately went to Turnip Plaza’s manager, Edward Griffin, and told him the details of Stacey’s offer to Mark.
Upon hearing of the offer, Edward called Mark into his office and said: “If you stay with Turnip Plaza, I promise that next month you will receive a promotion with a 50 percent raise and a guaranteed contract for a two-year term.” This sounded good to Mark, and he turned down the offer from Stacey to stay with Turnip Plaza. However, last week, shortly before Mark was to receive his new contract, he was dismissed from Turnip Plaza because of corporate restructuring due to concerns about the increased liability risks of managing high adventure tours through Colossal’s hotels. Although Mark has not taken any formal action at this point, the vice president is concerned that Mark might try to hold Turnip Plaza to Edward’s promise.
Your task is to research the legal and ethical issues associated with this situation and write a report to the vice president answering the following questions:
What legal theories might Mark use to try to legally enforce Edward’s promise? Explain the elements of these theories and how they apply to the facts of this scenario.
If Mark were to file a lawsuit and win, what sort of damages or other remedies might he be entitled to? Include your reasoning and any evidence that led you to your conclusions.
Finally, regardless of the legal implications, the vice president would like your view on the ethical issues. Does Turnip Plaza have an ethical obligation to fulfill the promise made by Edward to Mark? Is it right to lay off Mark under these circumstances? What should Turnip Plaza do from an ethical perspective? Use ethical theory and principles to analyze these questions.
Step 2: Gather and Analyze Information
INBOX (1 NEW EMAIL)
From: Kenneth Dodger, Vice President, Colossal Corporation
To: You
Good morning,
Hope you’ve had time to review the case file on The Turnip Plaza Hotel. In order to formulate a sound response to my questions, you’ll need to review a number of specific foundational issues involving legal contracts.
First, find the necessary information about contract formation and execution. Then, look into possible contract remedies for when a breach of contract occurs. As you read over this information, be sure to record your thoughts pertaining to the case, while noting the places in the readings that prompted your thoughts.
After you have refreshed your understanding of contract law generally, you should supplement that understanding by doing legal research on specific laws related to contracts in Michigan. Again, make sure to take notes as you read. Good notes will help you write your report.
Thinking over this case, put some of your focus on Edward Griffin’s role in this situation with Mark Piper. More specifically, consider whether Edward had the authority to make the promise he made (or any promises) to Mark.
Review the legal responsibilities of agents and employees to help formulate your answer. You should also review ethical business decision making, as it pertains to keeping promises in business situations and the ethical questions I have asked you to consider.
I trust you to perform with the same tenacity as you did with the first cases.
Thanks,
Ken
Step 3: Focus on Your Rationale and Conclusions: Create Your Outline
You’ve finished your research and reflected on how the facts and the law come together in this situation. You’ve also analyzed the possible arguments and determined which seem most reasonable (all things considered). Now it is time to formulate them, making sure to address all the concerns that VP Dodger expressed to you when you met. Outline the report that you will draft for your VP and review your document to make certain it covers all relevant points and progresses in a logical order.
After you finish the outline, if you have time, give yourself one night of sleep before you begin the next step, in which you will write the report. Fresh eyes might help you see points that need revision.
Step 4: Communicate Your Findings and Conclusions to the VP: Create Your Report
Use your outline and research notes to prepare your report for the VP. Be sure to meet the following requirements he has requested:
Format your report by including APA-formatted in-text citations and an APA-formatted reference list (do not format the body of the report using APA style, just the reference list). See references and citations for details.
Include a specific recommendation of what action, if any, the VP should take based on your analysis and conclusions.
Support your conclusion with references to legal principles and laws.
The report should be no more than 10 pages (double spaced, 12-point font; the reference list does not count towards page limit).
Title your file using this protocol: yourlastname_TurnipPlazaReport_date.
Submit your Turnip Plaza report to the submission dropbox located in the final step of this project. You should try to have this report complete by the end of Week 4.
In the next step, you will begin work on navigating some of the international legal challenges Colossal is facing.
Step 5: Review Colossal’s International Legal Challenges
Successfully completing the Turnip Plaza report, you’re ready to review your next assignment: the International Legal Challenges case file.
You open the file and read over the specifics of this situation. You soon see that VP Dodger is concerned about some of the risks involved with a number of Colossal’s international projects.
In the next step, you will gather the information you need to identify important issues for the VP.
Step 6: Gather and Analyze the Information
While you have some general awareness that there are many ramifications of international transactions from a legal perspective, including dispute resolution provisions, you realize that you need to know a lot more about this subject before you can attempt to respond to the VP’s questions.
You begin by researching international law, international contracts, an introduction to alternative dispute resolution, and international dispute resolution.
Step 7: Engage in the International Legal Challenges Discussion
Discussion with Colleagues
Now that you’ve gathered and analyzed information on the International Legal Challenges case file, Vice President Dodger would like you to discuss your thoughts with the other members of his special investigations team. He sends you two requirements for this discussion:
First, each participant is to post an initial response to at least two of the five questions noted in the International Legal Challenges file. This should be completed during Week 5 and should meet the following requirements:
Include a specific recommendation of what action, if any, the VP should take based on your analysis and conclusions.
Support your conclusion with references to legal principles and laws.
These posts can be as long or as short as you need in order to effectively make your points.
Second, each participant must provide a substantive response to at least one posting from a colleague in the discussion, critiquing the initial post by appealing to legal and business considerations. This should be completed during Week 5.
Consult MBA Discussion Guidelines for instructions on participation in discussions.
