Business Dilemmas (10)

Racjonalny wybór - Studia przypadków 4

Rational Choice - Case studies 4

We will have a look at two well-known case studies which are often discussed in business courses concerning ethics. The first case is about the Bullard Houses and it focuses on negotiation and loyalty towards the client while the other concerns Conco Oil Company and the issues related to the environment and local culture.

The Bullard Houses

Here is the background of the story. The Bullard family owns some decaying townhouses and they would like to have them refurbished and sold to a developer, but they do not want the development to be gaudy and commercialized. They just want a nice and pleasant townhouse estate. A hotel chain, the Conrad Milton Hotel, is interested to buy these buildings. They want to put a high-rise hotel on the property, and use the houses as a kind of lobby for the hotel. Obviously, there is a conflict of interests because what the hotel chain intends to do is just the sort of thing the family does not want to happen. The hotel chain is negotiating through an agent, called Absentia, who is not revealing the identity of their client. When the Bullards negotiate, they do not know that a hotel chain is actually behind the bids. Absentia has strict instructions not to inform the Bullards about the true purpose of buying this property, because Conrad Milton knows the Bullards would not go for it. What should the negotiators at Absentia do about this?