What is Division of Labour?

 

What is Division of Labour?

Division of labour is the commonsense arrangements whereby each person concentrates on the work he can do best. In industry the division of labour is clearly seen when individuals specializes in particular fields of production such as vulcanising, steel bending, writing or fitting.

Division of Labour

Advantages and Disadvantages of Specialization

Specialization enhance productive efficiency and results in increased output at lower cost. It permits individual worker to take advantage of their different abilities, for each man works in the area in which he is most productive.

Specialization results in the acquisition of appropriate skills which increases Efficiency. They best workers can be kept all the time on the most difficult worl, and it is possible to provide suitable tasks for partially disabled men .

Devoting all of ones time to a single Operation or occupation eliminate the loss of time involved in shifting from one job to anther.

Lastly, specialization permits the exploitation of individual aptitude and encourage the use of machinery.

On the other hand specialization comes with some disadvantages. The continuous performance of the same task cuases the work to become monotonous and this may even dull the intelligence of the worker.

Specialization leads to a declined of craftsmanship because no one can confidently point to a particular article as having been made wholly by him or she. It again renders labour immobile and increase the difficulty of finding fresh employment when, for any reason, one losses his job.

The growth of factory system following specialization leads to certain  evils, such as overcrowding in towns. There is an absence of personal relationships between employers and employees

Factors that limit the Application of Division of

Division of Labour is limited by the extent of the market. Specialization is worth while only if the Market, i.e. the potential demand for the services of the specialised factor of production is big enough to keep them fully employed. Therefore the refined division of labour techniques are inappropriate in industries serving a small market only.

Sometimes it is impossible to subdivide a technical process beyond a certain point. When each process has been reduced to a minimum activity further division of labour is impossible, and increased output will have to be achieved by duplicating the existing processes.

If the money system is inadequate in some way, perhaps because of general distrust of the currency or fear of devaluation, the production of large output becomes more risky. Entrepreneurs will take absolute care and content themselves with lower level of production than in more favourable circumstances.