Specialization
is concentrating on the production of a particular product which country can
produce best or concentrating on a skill which a worker is best at.
Specialization based on products by countries is based on absolute and
comparative advantage. Specialization based on skills is known as division of
labour.
Division of labour
Specialization by individual is
called division of labour.
Division of labour means breaking the process of production into single
operations where each worker specializes in the production of one specific
task. The word division of labour was coined by the world famous economist Adam
Smith in 1882 in his famous book title ‘wealth of nations’.
‘Adam Smith wrote about
the division of labour in Wealth of
Nations back in the 18th Century. He said that by splitting the
production of a good into a number of different tasks, and allocating each task
to a different worker, then more could be produced as workers developed greater
skill in performing their particular task with the use of specialist tools
designed for just that task, thus leading to less wastage of materials and less
time spent on their task’
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Labour productivity is output per
unit of input. The other type of productivity is capital productivity.
This
is output per unit of capital used. The reasons for increase in
productivity by the workers in the pin factory example are due to.
· Saving of time by the workers by moving from one
work unit to another in order to use different machines and tools. Once a
worker is specialized, then the worker will remain in one place due to which
movement time is saved.
· Workers will be able to specialize in the
production of those tasks which they are best at doing. This will increase the
individual worker productivity, thus leading to increasing the organizational
productivity as a whole.
· Saving of specialized tools since tools are not
given to each worker, rather than that, it is only given to those workers who
are specialized in that particular task which require tools. Thus it helps to
reduce cost of tools.
· Division of labour makes an individual to gain
knowledge and skill in a narrow range of task. Therefore constant practice
makes the labour perfect in the task making output to increase.
However,
division of labour has its drawbacks as well. It is summarized below:
· If the work is broken down into too many small
tasks, the work becomes tedious and monotonous (dull & boring) workers feel
that they are being alienated from the work leads to poor motivation which
causes low quality and reduced output of the worker. The worker will be trying
to do everything possible to avoid work such as going to toilet and loitering
around.
· If workers specialize in a particular skill than
the worker will lose the other sills which he/she is good at.
· If a machine breaks down or a specialized worker
is absent then it can run into the risk of interruption in the whole
production.
· Cannot practice in small markets.