ORGANIZING AT THE WORKPLACE

Organizing is a key priority for the Cambodian Cross Sector Confederation and part of nearly everything we do. Building union power through organizing helps us achieve our key goals. This includes a living wage, limits on precarious work, respect for human and trade union rights, healthier and safer workplaces, and more equitable societies. And there is much work to be done. Only seven percent of the nearly 40000 workers around in Cambodia are members of free and independent unions. Even fewer are active members of their unions.

While there are exceptions, unions in many in Cambodia have seen declines in membership and influence in recent years. The percentage of workers who are union members in the province (38 of the wealthiest 25 in Cambodia) has decreased from 33 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2023. This is partly due to attempts by many governments and multinational corporations to undermine unions and attack workers’ rights.

Declining union presence in recent years has led to increasing economic inequality throughout Cambodia, and labor’s share of income has declined. To reverse these trends, unions around the Cambodian organization must more and more effectively than ever before. 

Building workers’ power means making organizing a key priority.

This requires a culture change in unions. Unions must invest more time, effort, and resources into recruiting new members and retaining existing ones. It also requires unions to focus on building solidarity and actively involving their members in all union matters.

CCC is focused on supporting organizing by our affiliates. We hope this information, along with other organizing support from CCCs, will help your union grow larger and more powerful than ever before.

What is organizing and why should we organize?

• Organizing means growing union membership and density in sectors and workplaces, building solidarity among workers, and increasing the participation of workers in unions.
• Recruiting and retaining members are key to organizing. Capital and corporations have more money than unions, but unions’ power comes from their members. 
• But only increasing a union’s membership is not enough. Organizing also involves building solidarity among workers and getting them involved and active in their union, working together to achieve common aims.

Unions are stronger when they organize and can gain the power and resources to:

• Achieve better wages, benefits and conditions for members
• Bargain effectively with multinational corporations
• Hold larger pickets and strikes
• Limit precarious work
• Have healthier and safer workplaces
• Protect workers against unfair dismissals and victimization
• Better service existing members and recruit new ones
• Network and campaign for workers’ rights worldwide

Unions that increase their membership, member solidarity, and member activism also gain political power. They can mobilize larger political demonstrations, have more impact on political decision-making, and have a greater influence in legislation affecting workers and unions.

Economic inequality is generally lower where unions are well organized. Union organizing helps build strong unions and economies with fairer distributions of wealth and power.

THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZING AT THE WORKPLACE

CCC Organizing also involves giving the correct amount of responsibility to the employees along with the authority to successfully accomplish these tasks and responsibilities. The process of organizing follows the following steps.

• Identifying the Work – The very first step in the process of organizing is to identify the work to do by the organization. The manager needs to identify the tasks to do to achieve the goals of the organization. This helps avoid miscommunication, overlapping of responsibilities, and wastage of time and effort.
• Grouping of Work – For smooth functioning of the organization, similar tasks, and activities are put together. This makes the functioning systematic by creating departments within the company and divisions within each department, depending on the size of the organization and the amount of work.
• Establish Hierarchy – Another step in the process of organizing is establishing relationships among employees of the company. This enables the evaluation and control over the performances of all the employees in a timely manner. Thus, if changes need to be made, they can be made immediately.
• Delegation of Authority – Authority is basically an individual’s right to act according to his wishes and extract loyalty from others. So, when a manager is given certain responsibilities, he must also be given authority to carry out such duties effectively.
• Coordination – The manager needs to make sure that there is coordination between various employees and groups. Otherwise, it may lead to conflicts between employees, and wastage of time and effort. He must ensure all the departments are carrying out their specialized tasks and there is harmony in these activities. The aim is to ensure that we can achieve the goal of the organization.

THE BENEFITS OF ORGANIZING

When it comes to the particular organizational structure a business follows, several factors such as size, industry, and manager preference play a part. While planning is essential for managers to reach business goals, most of it can go to waste if they fail to organize the company’s valuable skills and resources properly. Some of the benefits of organizing include the following when managers take the time to organize –

• Organizing arranges employees’ individual goals with the company. If employees are working without concern for the big picture, then the organization loses the togetherness necessary to work as a unit.
• A good organizational framework is essential for the spread of business activities as it improves tracing and responsibility and helps organizations identify the resources it needs to grow. Similarly, organizing is essential for product multiplicity, such as the development of a new line of business.
• Organizing helps business efficiency and lowers wastage. In order to increase efficiency, some businesses assemble operations while others arrange operations with customers in mind.
• A strong organizational structure gives clear instructions, so employees know whose directions to follow. This in turn improves responsibility, which is important when we measure and analyze outcomes.
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZING

Organizations are systems created to achieve common goals setting through relationships between workers and their relationship with work. They are basically social elements that are goal-oriented, intentionally created for coordinated activity systems, and related to the external environment. Managers purposely create and bring together resources to achieve the organization’s purpose.

Each organization has its own external and internal environment that defines the nature of the relationships according to its distinct needs. Managers undertake to organize to design, structure and arrange the elements of an organization’s internal environment to promote the attainment of organizational goals. A thorough approach to organizing helps the management in many ways. It combines the various resources towards a common goal.

• Efficient Administration – Organizing brings together various departments by grouping similar and related jobs under a single skill. This creates planning between different departments, which leads to combined effort and cooperation in work. It manages the working of different departments by describing activities and their authority relationships in the organizational structure. It creates the workings for management to direct and control the activities in the organization.
• Resource Development – Organizing at the workplace ensures an effective role suitable for every employee in the organization. It helps in avoiding confusion and delays, as well as doubling work and overlapping of effort.
• Benefits Specialization – It is the process of organizing groups and dividing the various activities and jobs based on the concept of division of labor. This helps to complete work in minimum time ensuring the benefit of specialization.
• SOME MORE POINTS TO CONSIDER

• Promotes Effective Communication – Organizing at the workplace is an important means of planning and communication among the various departments of the organization. Different jobs and positions are interrelated. It specifies the mode of communication among different members.
• Creates Transparency – The activities that employees carry out clearly indicate what exactly the job is in every job. Organizing fixes, the authority – responsibility among employees. This leads to transparency in the organization.
• Expansion and Growth – When we use resources properly and distribute work fairly among employees, organizations can increase their strength and take up more activities. They can easily meet the challenges and can increase their activities in a well-planned manner.

It is essential to organize to enable easier future planning for your business. Begin by starting a routine and planning each day. Then move on to planning for the future by using your goals . There are lots of ways to organize that help your business.

Managers undertake to organize frame, design, and arrange the elements of an organization’s internal environment to promote the attainment of organizational goals. Organizing creates the structure needed to reach a company’s goals and objectives. The more organized your business is, the easier it will be to function. It will leave you more time to focus on increasing your profits.