Labor specialization is an inevitable part of modern economies. Modern factories are full of workers who concentrate on performing certain operations. Gone are the times when one worker had to perform the whole range of specific tasks to produce goods. The term “division of labor” was coined by Adam Smith in the eighteenth century. The economist anticipated that breaking the process of manufacturing into separate stages and putting different workers in charge of each stage would sufficiently increase productivity. Labor specialization accelerated the Industrial Revolution and showed how factories can produce a gigantic amount of products as compared to the previous times.
Adam Smith and his views which concerned breaking large jobs into small parts were groundbreaking in the Victorian era. Each worker became an expert in a specific area which required more human resources on the factories. Nevertheless, this approach made Victorian factories efficient so that they successfully developed in the nineteenth century. Taking into account specifics of a mundane and dull work, A. Smith anticipated workers’ dissatisfaction and decreased production. To handle these issues, he proposed that workers shall obtain education for the cost of government. A. Smith believed that these techniques will create highly productive labor and will allow reinvesting the revenue into the expansion of the manufacturing process.
Despite numerous advantages, the drawbacks of labor specialization are relevant even now. Repetitive work is boring and damaging workers’ productivity. Highly specialized production may suffer if workers responsible for certain operations are absent. Nevertheless, high revenue usually covers all additional expenses involved in the production process.