Advantages of division of labor:
1. Professional division of labor can improve labor proficiency, save labor conversion time, and save training costs.
Because repeated operations can help you become proficient in a certain skill and reduce the number of job changes; division of labor allows people to specialize in one line of work, which can avoid repeated training costs.
2. Reduce labor supervision costs.
When the degree of division of labor is high, personal responsibilities are clear, the work content is simple and easy to supervise, and the supervision cost is correspondingly low. On the contrary, the degree of division of labor is low, the labor content of individual workers is complex, supervision becomes more difficult, and supervision costs rise.
Disadvantages of division of labor:
1. Adverse impact on workers and enterprise adaptability
High degree of division of labor reduces workers’ relationship with the entire production process Decreased ability to understand, adapt, and automatically coordinate. This has two disadvantages. One is the loss of working time, and the other is the increase in management staff. A high degree of division of labor affects individual adaptability and will also lead to a decrease in the overall adaptability of the enterprise.
2. Adverse effects on labor-management relations
A high degree of division of labor can easily lead to unfavorable distribution relationships for employees at the middle and lower levels of the enterprise. Whether this is advisable for companies aiming to maximize profits depends on the external environment - market conditions.
The theory of division of labor was proposed by Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations".
He believes that the main benefits of division of labor are:
(1) Division of labor can enable workers to complete single operations repeatedly, thereby improving labor proficiency and improving labor efficiency.
(2) Division of labor can reduce the time lost due to changing jobs.
(3) Division of labor can simplify labor and focus workers' attention on a specific object, which is conducive to creating new tools and improving equipment.
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Extended information:
Labor Division of labor and Adam Smith and his "The Wealth of Nations"
In March 1776, Adam Smith first proposed the concept of division of labor in his "The Wealth of Nations" and elaborated it systematically and comprehensively The division of labor plays a huge role in improving labor productivity and increasing national wealth.
Adam Smith first proposed the theory of division of labor, which played a very important role at the time. Because division of labor can improve efficiency, by the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford divided the production of a car into 8,772 units. working hours. The theory of division of labor has become the main model governing corporate management.
The theory of division of labor played a very important role in the development of management theory. Later theories such as professional division of labor, management functional division of labor, and social division of labor all have a "blood relationship" with Smith's theory.
If a worker has not received considerable training in this occupation (the result of division of labor, making pin manufacturing a specialized occupation), and does not know how to use the machinery in this occupation (making this machinery more efficient) If there is the possibility of invention, I am afraid it is also the result of division of labor), then even if you work hard, you may not be able to make one pin in a day. It is certainly impossible to make twenty. But according to the current way of doing business, not only have all this kind of work become specialized occupations, but this kind of occupation has also been divided into several departments, most of which have also become specialized occupations. One person draws the wire, another straightens it, another cuts it, another sharpens one end of the wire, and another grinds the other end to fit the round end. To make a round head, two or three different operations are required. Assembling round heads, painting them white, and even packaging are all specialized occupations. In this way, the manufacturing of buckle pins is divided into eighteen operations. In some factories, these eighteen operations are performed by eighteen specialized workers. Of course, sometimes one person can also serve as two or three gates. I have seen a small factory like this that only employs ten workers. Therefore, in this factory, there are several workers performing two or three operations. Although the workers in a small factory like this are very poor and their necessary machinery and equipment are very crude, if they work diligently, they can make twelve pounds of needles a day. Considering that there are 4,000 needles per pound, these ten workers can make 48,000 needles per day, that is, one person can make 4,800 needles per day. If they work independently and do not specialize in any special business, then no matter who they are, they will never be able to make twenty needles a day, and perhaps not even one needle a day.
Not only are they unable to produce one 240th of the quantity that can be produced today through proper division of labor, but they may not be able to produce even one 4800th of this quantity.
——"The Wealth of Nations"
Smith famously said: "Give me what I want, and you can get what you want."< /p>
Smith believed that: People pursue personal interests in economic activities. Precisely because everyone is egoistic, everyone’s egoism must be restricted by the egoism of others, which forces everyone to Individuals must take into account the legitimate interests of others, which results in social interests, which are based on personal interests.
This is the so-called "economic man" perspective, which later became the theoretical basis of the entire capitalist management. The "carrot and stick" management approach was born on this theoretical basis.
References:
/baike.baidu.com/item/Division of Labor#6"target="_blank">Baidu Encyclopedia-Division of Labor
/baike.baidu.com/item /Smith’s theory of division of labor/12748894"target="_blank">Baidu Encyclopedia-Smith’s theory of division of labor