Early economies

Division of labor and specialization

 
•Division of labor came about as people began to maximize their individual
skills, by the splitting up of a main task into several smaller tasks.

•Specialization is concentrating on only one task and is an aspect of division of

labor.

•The earliest form of production was ‘direct’, i.e. people provided for themselves
directly without the assistance of any other person. As simple societies developed,
they moved away from direct production to indirect production, which is defined
as producing to satisfy the wants of others in society.
 Level of specialization
 
•Specialization can be:
 
 By product or occupation, e.g. agriculture (sugar cane), pig farming, poultry
farming, vegetable farming
 By process, e.g. forestry; different processes within the industry include falling of
logs, sawing of logs into lumber, processing lumber to size an length
 By firm, e.g. BP specializes in petroleum products, aviation fuels, gasoline for
cars, lubricants
 By industry, e.g. tourism; accommodation, transportation, water sports and so on;
 By region, e.g. the northern region of Jamaica specializes in Blue Mountain coffee
 By nation, e.g. Brazil specializes in coffee production
 Advantage of specialization
1. Savings in time taken to train a person
2.Tools are less expensive if the worker performs one task
3.Output per person is increased
4.Machines can be used to speed up production
5.Efficiency of work is boosted by piecework
6.Repetition of a task improves the skill of the worker
7.Standardized product
 Disadvantage of specialization
1. Size of the market limits specialization
2. Motivating a worker who does the same task every day is difficult
3. Industrial action is easier to organize in an assembly-line type of
production
4. Loss of individual craftsmanship occurs when machines are used.
5. Disruption of production may take place if one person in the chain of the
process is absent, ill or incompetent
6. Occupational immobility-it is difficult to find a job other than the one in
which you have specialized, if you become unemployed.