Division of labour and specialization
division of labour
In the early days there were no specialization, man did all his work and provided for all his needs. With time, man learned to carry out different activities in different places and at different periods of the year. This led to the beginning of specialization in human society.
In the modern world, man specializes in performing a single task. By so doing, the allow other persons to concentrate on the production of other goods such as nation specializes in the production of certain good. Therefore, specialization means the concentration of a worker mental and physical effects and physical effects and specific task which is a small part of the process in the production of commodity.
Division of labour is defined as the breaking up of production process into different task each performed by different person or group of person for example. In a restaurant, some people can be cooking food, some washing dishes and some serving customers.
Advantages of division of labour
- Efficiency: as a market performs one function over and over the develop skills which enables to become efficient.
- Time is saved: when one man performed a single operation, he avoids the waste of time moving from one task to another.
- There is less fatigue: since workers don’t move from one task to another, they don’t easily get tired, they therefore work harder to increase output.
- Specialization is possible: each worker concentrates on a task in which he is best suited, he becomes a master in this task and output increases.
- Makes possible the employment of specialist: when work has been divided into part it becomes easy for people to be trained to operate these components.
Disadvantages of division of labour
- Monotony: when workers do the same thing over and over for two long, they loose interest for their jobs. This can cause inefficiency.
- The decline of craftsmanship: machines are now used in doing what was formerly done by man power. The satisfaction derived from making money something in hos.
- High rate of unemployment: usually workers depends on the use of machines and may not be employed in areas that need man power for example the coming of computers has sent many manual typist employments.
- Interdependent: the absence of one person can lead to a half in one five production process. This is because sectors of the production rely so much on each other.
Limitation of division of labour
- Limited market: if the market is not large enough to handle the increasing output division of labour is not necessary.
- Limited capital: Division of labour requires the use of machines. It is not possible it firms don’t have enough capital to buy the required machines
- Poor Transport Network: there are some types of activities like teaching counselling that need physical contract and much care they can’t be divided into smaller tank.
- The desire for self-sufficiency: division of labour makes people depend on others. To resolve over dependence people tends to produce most of the thing they desire (wants) this.
Labour as a factor of production
