Topic 3: Specialisation And The Division Of Labour

Question 0

Disadvantages of specialisation and division of labour

Answer 0

• Time consuming because you have to repeat what you
• in the long term training costs
• tasks become boring/demotivating and will have an impact on productivity
• loss of skills: workers trained in one particular task and have limited skills so could be a problem if they are made redundant
• a strike by one group of workers could bring the ip entire production facility to stand still

Question 1

Benefits of specialisation and division of labour

Answer 1

• each worker only specialises in the task they are best suited for>they only have to be trained in 1 task
• -because you are repeating what you are doing you become more skilled at it
• more efficient
• quality increases
• less errors
• firms save in the long run
• less time is wasted cuz worker doesn’t have to move from one task to another

Question 2

Specialisation

Answer 2

Process of becoming an expert in a particular area

Question 3

limits to the divsion of labour

What factors can limit the extent to which the division of labour can be specialised

Answer 3

• the size of the market: if there is only as small market then it will be more difficult to specialise
• type of product: e.g designer fashion products are likely to be unique

Question 4

Division of labour

Answer 4

A process whereby the production procedure is broken down into a sequence of stages and workers are assigned to particular stages