Division of Labour

Division of Labour, in economics, separation of the work involved in production and trade into processes performed by different workers or groups of workers. Separation of the productive process into individual operations, each performed by different groups of workers, is a feature of most modern factories, and underpins the “production line” technique of working. For example, the car consists of thousands of parts, each requiring a number of distinct manufacturing processes. Many of these parts are manufactured in plants devoted solely to the production of those particular items; within these plants the productive process is divided among different groups of workers, each of whom has a specialized task to perform. The major advantage of the technical division of labour is greater productivity, which results from several factors. The most important are a marked increase in individual and collective efficiency due to specialization and the increase in skill that specialization provides; economy in training of workers, especially with respect to time; economy resulting from the continuous use of tools that would otherwise remain idle during part of the working time as workers move from process to process; and the development of highly productive, specialized tools, machinery, and equipment.

Division of labour has been a feature of production from the earliest times. As civilization developed, a division of labour took place on a vocational basis. Different economic activities were performed by separate groups of producers. With the development of tools and productive techniques, handicrafts and agriculture were carried on by separate groups. The growth of cities fostered a wider specialization of artisans. Division of labour became more widespread during the Middle Ages due to the development of the guilds.

During the later Middle Ages, division of labour appeared for the first time on an important scale, in connection with a widespread increase in the production of consumer goods. The Industrial Revolution that followed during the late 18th and early 19th centuries created the modern factory system of production; it gave a tremendous impetus to the development of the division of labour. The division of labour in modern industry into many thousands of individual processes and skills created complex technical, organizational, and personnel problems. To cope with these problems sophisticated and highly specialized industrial management techniques have been developed.