Division of labor

Examples of Division of labor in the following topics:

• The Division of Labor

  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and similar roles.
  • An assembly line is an example of the division of labor.
  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles.
  • Emilie Durkheim was a driving force in developing the theory of the division of labor in socialization.
  • In view of the global extremes of the division of labor, the question is often raised about what manner of division of labor would be ideal, most efficient, and most just.

• Importance of Division of Labor

  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles.
  • An example of the division of labor in the workplace is how workers at a candy factory have very particular tasks.
  • A complex division of labor appears to be strongly correlated with the rise of capitalism, as well as the rise of complex industrial production.
  • A highly specialized division of labor is often used in factories, such as this Chinese silk factory.
  • Examine how the division of labor can lead to alienation and less satisfaction in the workforce

• Schein's Common Elements of an Organization

  • The four common elements of an organization include common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority.
  • Each of the four elements is relatively straightforward in theory but represents a critical component of an effective structure.
  • Division of labor is also known as work specification for greater efficiency.
  • Using division of labor, an organization can parcel out a complex work effort for specialists to perform.
  • Hierarchy of authority is essentially the chain of command—a control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements, namely: norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.
  • This theory suggests that gender inequalities exist as an efficient way to create a division of labor, or as a social system in which particular segments are clearly responsible for certain, respective acts of labor.
  • The division of labor works to maximize resources and efficiency.
  • A structural functionalist view of gender inequality applies the division of labor to view predefined gender roles as complementary: women take care of the home while men provide for the family.
  • While the structural-functionalist perspective argues that gender inequalities exist as a form of the division of labor, the photograph above clearly illustrates that women need not be restricted to certain activities.

• Specialization by Skillset

  • An automobile company is an example specialization of labor where engineers design cars in functional groups (i.e., research and development departament) and facilities distinct from the production line workers that actually produce the car at the plant.
  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and like roles.
  • Historically, an increasingly complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialization processes.
  • Division of labor was also a method used by the Sumerians to categorize different jobs and divide them to skilled members of a society.
  • Employees within the functional divisions of an organization tend to perform a specialized set of tasks, for instance, the engineering department would be staffed only with software engineers.

• Preindustrial Societies: The Birth of Inequality

  • Pre-industrial typically have predominantly agricultural economies and limited production, division of labor, and class variation.
  • The economy was based on the exchange of labor for land instead of the exchange of wages for labor that is typical in industrial society.
  • In general, pre-industrial societies share certain social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization, including limited production, a predominantly agricultural economy, limited division of labor, limited variation of social class, and parochialism at large.
  • Feudal lords were landowners; in exchange for access to land for living and farming, serfs offered lords their service or labor.
  • This arrangement (land access in exchange for labor) is sometimes called "manorialism," an organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire.

• The Factory System

  • Before the 19th century, much labor was performed by skilled artisans working with hand tools.
  • The American System, or Armory System, emerged in the 1820s and involved semi-skilled labor to produce standardized and identical interchangeable parts that could be assembled with a minimum of time and skill.
  • The division of labor was crucial to the transition from small artisan's shops to early factories which made use of non-specialized labor.
  • Early textile factories frequently relied on the labor of women and children .
  • Evans' automated flour mill featured labor-saving elevators, pulleys and belts, an improvement on traditional gristmills.

• Slave Labor

  • Slave labor in the United States - especially on large plantations - consisted of hard manual labor often under brutal conditions.
  • Chattel slavery in the United States, or the outright ownership of a human being and of his/her descendants, was a form of forced labor which existed as a legal institution from the early colonial period .
  • While the majority of slaves performed hard manual labor on farms and plantations, slavery was also seen in the major cities in the forms of house servants.
  • There were two primary types of labor systems seen on plantations: the gang system and the task system.
  • Research suggests that the task system was an offshoot of the division of labor that was already in place in the African tribal systems before the Atlantic slave trade brought the slaves over to the American colonies.

• Chesapeake Slavery

  • The economy of the Chesapeake region revolved around tobacco and relied heavily on slave labor.
  • The scarcity of indentured servants meant that the price of their labor contracts increased, and Chesapeake farmers began to look for alternative, cheaper sources of bonded labor.
  • A great deal of support for the system of chattel slavery came from the fear of wealthy whites of rebellions from the labor force.
  • Racial slavery even served to heal some of the divisions between wealthy and poor whites, who could now unite as members of a “superior” racial group.
  • With the importation of African slaves, most social and economic divisions between wealthy and poor farmers in the Chesapeake increased.

• A Brief History of Organized Labor

  • The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor (KOL) was founded in Philadelphia in 1869 by Uriah Stephens and six other men.
  • The Knights only permitted certain groups of individuals into their Order which promoted social division amongst the people around them.
  • Membership has declined since (currently 14.8 million and 12% of the labor force).
  • The history of organized labor has been a specialty of scholars since the 1890s, and has produced a large amount of scholarly literature.
  • Outline the increases and declines in the labor union movement of the last 150 years