OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and the situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Name and describe your organization.

Clube Cacadores das Taipas is a Professional Football (soccer) Club based in the village
of Caldas das Taipas in Portugal. They currently play in fifth tier of the Portuguese
football league system and compete in the district of Braga, Portugal. Their
symbol/mascot is a wild board and the reason for this can be traced back to their origin.
Originally founded in November 11, 1923 as a hunting club and then transitioning to a
football club in 1930, they have an extensive history spanning nearly 100 years. Their
reputation as a historic club has garnered them a loyal and unwaveringly supportive
fanbase and is a major reason that many young and talented players choose to develop
their talents there in hopes of moving up the ranks of the Portuguese football league
system and also a reason it has become a common ground for older players to retire.

2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be an internal or external role).

I was a part of the club for the 2021-2022 season and I had an internal role as a player. I
signed a one season professional contract with the club spanning from August of 2021 to
June 2022. In terms of organizational hierarchy, players are operational employees with
the coaching staff, not including the head coach, being lower-level management, the head
coach being middle-level management, and the president and board of directors being
higher-level management. My responsibilities as a player were to attend daily trainings,
ensure that my body was in top condition, travel as necessary for games, and ensure that I
perform to the caliber expected when called upon.

3) Describe the situation, including information you think the will help the reader
understand the most important elements of the situation. (This will require
selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the
mass of information that might be included).

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 In the lower levels of professional football, a majority of the funding for a team comes
from sponsorships as opposed to the owners of the club. Unfortunately, the 2021-2022
season was the first full season post-covid. Due to covid, a lot of the team’s sponsors
pulled out due to the lack of funds from the decreased business because of the pandemic.
As a result of this, the players and coaching staff were left unpaid by higher level
management during the middle of the season from November 2021 – February 2022.
There were numerous meetings held between the players and coaching staff and the
management. These meetings would always end in chaos and a barrage of constant
shouting on both ends. On the management’s end, they expected us as the players to still
train and play because that was our responsibility, and on our end, most of us were
adamant that we would not train or play because we were not getting paid. The problem
took so long to resolve because both parties wanted to win unanimously instead of
finding a common ground, understanding both sides of the problem, and coming to a
solution that benefits all. Also, as learned in the text,”organizations are deceptive. They
camouflage mistakes and surprises… Communications in organizations are rarely candid,
open, or timely” (Bolman & Deal, 2021, p. 34). The president, who I will not name for
confidentiatlity reasons, exemplified the two reasons that the issue took so long to resolve
by always beginning and ending the meetings with the same two remarks respectively, “ I
will pay you next week” (false promises) and “I will not pay you if you do not train”
(trying to win unanimously).

The few players that were opposed to not training or playing were the younger players
because they were more concerned about the future and progression of their career. The
salary and leadership issues not only caused a rift between the players and the higher
management but also between the players themselves. Due to the internal conflict within
the team, we were constantly losing games. This ended up giving management something
to hold over our heads as the president would state in every meeting “why should I pay
all of you if all you are doing is losing?” All in all, both sides were losing because the
failures of the team was not a good look on the management and the absence of salary
took away a big component of motivation to play from the players.

References
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Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership,
7th edition. McGraw Hill.