ADVERTISEMENTS:
Some of the major demerits of division of labour are: (i) monotony (ii) kills the creative instinct (iii) loss of skill (iv) checks mobility (v) risk of unemployment (vi) checks development of personality (vii) loss of sense of responsibility (ix) problem of distribution (x) dependence:
(i) Monotony:
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Doing the same work over and over again without any change produces mental fatigue. Work becomes joyless and monotonous. There is no pleasure in the job. The worker cannot be expected to take any interest. The quality of work suffers.
(ii) Kills the Creative Instinct:
Since many men contribute to the making of an article, none can say that he has made it. His relative instinct is not satisfied. The work gives him no pride and 10 pleasure, since no worker can claim the product as his own reaction.
(iii) Loss of Skill:
The worker deteriorates in the technical skill, instead of making the whole article, he is required just to repeat a new simple movements. The skill gradually dies out.
(iv) Checks Mobility:
The worker is doing only a part of the job. He knows only that much and no more. It may not be easy for him of find exactly the same job elsewhere, if he desires a change. In his way, the worker loses mobility.
(v) Risk of Unemployment:
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If the worker is dismissed from one victory he may have to search far and wide before he secures a job at which he has specialised. He may be making only the legs of a hair. It is doubtful if he can get the same job. On the other hand, he knew how to make the complete chair his chance of getting job elsewhere would be brighter.
(vi) Checks Development of Personality:
If a man has been making an eighteenth part of a pin, he becomes an eighteenth part f a man. A narrow sphere of work checks proper physical and mental development of the worker.
(vii) Loss of Sense of Responsibility:
None can be held Responsible for bad production because none makes the complete article. When the thing is bad, everybody tries to shift the responsibility to somebody else.
(viii) Evils of Factory System:
Division of labour gives rise to the factory system which is full of evils. It spoils the beauty of the place all round, leads to exploitation of women and children and removes the personal factor in production and management.
(ix) Problem of Distribution:
Under division of labour, many reasons contribute to the production of an article. They must receive a due share of the product and it is not easy to determine his share. Thus the problem of distribution is made difficult.
If new worker makes the whole article independently, he gets its value and there is no trouble. But division of labour has divided the community into two conflicting groups, i.e., capital and labour. The gap between them is daily growing wider. Strikes and lock outs have become a common occurrence in the present day.
(x) Dependence:
The dependence of one country upon another which is the necessary consequence of division of labour proves dangerous in times of war. Division of labour is no doubt attended with a number of drawbacks, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages Division of labour, as pointed out earlier, is universal and found or all societies. Rudimentary in pre-literate society it is elaborately stratified in advanced societies. Economy has moved from self-employment to bureaucratic employment.
Formerly each mar completed a total operation for a world-wide market, now most men perform a minute part of a total operation for a world wind market. Division of labour rules not only industry but also agriculture, art, medicine, literature and government. The problem today is the determination of the limits of division of labour, i.e. how far division of labour means a waste of effort. Large scale organisation is essential to maintain our civilization and so is the division of labour.