OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The issue I’ve been covering over the past few PCA’s is on my old high school soccer
team’s coach and particularly his leadership. Our program has been historically bad and
any time theres a glimpse of a chance we end up shooting ourselves in the foot. To this
day the team struggles to get along and find success through teamwork. The problem is
that after years of coaching the team, the coach still hasn’t managed to take an authoritive
role and manage the team with standards. When the team is able to be focused in training,
positive after rough games, and proud after good fights, then they will begin beating
better teams.

2) Describe how the politics of the organization influenced the situation.

One of the main issues with the coach is that he gives the best players on the team special
privileges. He will let them decide what do work on in practice, what formation to run in
games, among other things. Part of this is that the team runs through these individuals
and therefore the style should be catered to their advantages. I agree with this reasoning
and most people that understand sports would too.

The problem, however, is when this privilege becomes apparent to the team and the
individual. On a recent occasion at a training I helped out at, I watched the coach
conclude a practice with a cooldown lap. The star player just chose not to run with
everyone else and just hung with the coaches. On another occasion during tryouts, I
watched the same player step out of a scrimmage to talk to the coaching staff, including
myself. Both of these instances seem harmless but they’re clearly things other players
wouldn’t get away with. High school sports are not supposed to have divas; nobody is
getting paid. By creating this political separation, the rest of the players feel like they
have less power and respect. These feelings reciprocate the main issue of bad teamwork.
Similarly to the workplace if a manager were to pick favorites, issues would arise
quickly. Instead these are teenage boys who won’t bring up these issues and would rather
resent certain players and even the coach.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative

course of action regarding your case.
A good alternative would be to remove politics from the situation as best as possible.
According to Boldman and Deal in Reframing Organizations organizational politics are
almost natural and should be expected. The difference here is that there are no
promotions, no raises, no pay, nothing. For this reason it’s possible to have an
environment without poltics.

I would recommend the coach to restructure his coaching style to hold all of the power,
among the other coaches, and to keep the structure strict moving forward. Since tehre are
no monetary rewards, the coach can show his approval and dedication to teamwork by
fielding the team that works best together. Some players are more individually gifted, but
can’t pass when they need to. These players should not be rewarded with more playing
time. Additionally, by keeping a firm stance on the power control, other players will see
the star player on a human level. The rest of the players want to see that player doing
conditioning with the rest of them, warming up before games together, and everything
else. The coach would help the team a lot by using his power for good and facilitate these
relationships.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have
learned about this frame.

Looking back on my time with the program I recognize that I was one of the star players
with special privilages and as I’ve moved on I realize how that harmed the team that I
was a part of. If I had the chance to relive that I would hold first myself accountable to
the values I’ve preached. Second, I would talk to the coach about trying to manage the
power balance of the team. I can confidently say I led by example in other areas,
however. I finished first in conditioning, I led warm ups, and I always gave my all in
drills.

Unfortunately, back then I had a victim mindset and was always angry about how bad the
team was. I would jump on any chance to get off easy in areas I thought it didn’t matter.
Because of this I can put myself in the shoes of the privileged player and understand how
nice it is to have that little extra bit of power. This frame helped me articulate how these
behaviors can be harmful to a team and how to avoid the situations.

Reference
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021a). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. Jossey-Bass.