According to Adam Smith's perspective, the wealth of nations lies in the hands of individuals.
Thus, it is the responsibility of an individual within the society to take an active role in a production to find better means of production (Berry, Paganelli and Smith, 2013). This leads to efficiency and reduction of acquisition of final product processes. This paper will evaluate the demise, growth, or individual knowledge, the knowledge located within the society as well as the creation of legitimate and illegitimate hierarchy.
Individual knowledge
The process of specialization entails an individual performing a given task of production repeatedly over a period of time. Consequently, this will lead the individual-to-individual concentration on the assigned job for a long duration leading to improvement of production strategies. This will fasten the production process leading to a shorter channel with the most desirable products. From the specified concentration on a particular production technique, an individual will incorporate specific inventions leading to the development of machines to perform the production task (Rosenburg, page129).
On the other hand, the second paragraph of chapter 129 illustrates the development of individual decision-making skills when exposed to specialisation. The decision made by an individual in the production system may be directed to the social common goal especially when terms of employment are applied. On the other hand, forced labour may lead an individual to make a decision that disrupts the entire production channel. From the story of a boy and the steam engine together with different perspectives of landowners, individual knowledge may act as a barrier to innovation as well as the driving factor to attaining the desired output (Durkheim, pg, 183). The consequence of ensuring labour division will increase intelligence and alertness in an individual.
Varying form of ternary may discourage the improvement of individual skills as well as innovation. An illustration is given on slaves who are placed on a mill to make the floor. The normal procedure of grinding is repeated continuously and lack of innovation to perform the task is considered unacceptable and foolish. However, when the slaves suggest new grinding skills to the master, it is viewed as idleness and may lead to punishment or rejections of the new suggestions (Smith 1978, p 364). Thus, the development of new ideas has been based on individuals with self-drive merchants, landowners, and employees who have specific motivations while slaves have been viewed as less innovative.
Individual knowledge in effective production is developed by individual goals as well as personal interest from within. Merchants will focus on new production skills while specializing in production lines. On the other hand, the landowners will insist to train different agricultural techniques while applying the use of specific tools and focus on single crops for project improvements (Durkheim, pg 183-190). This has enhanced growth of ideas, and a well-organized trade enhancing wealth accumulation. Employees will also perform their task well because of salary motivation while taking into consideration the lazy aspect of human life.
Knowledge located within society
The general knowledge of the society is that slaves should be subjected to tough labour and punishment executed for any form of improving the working conditions. On the other hand, the slaves have developed the mentality of performing their daily chores with the views of humiliation and torture (Durkheim 2014, pg 293). However, according to Adam Smith, this is a form of production that needs to be taken into consideration (Smith 1978, p, 648). The general take of the society is the presence of laziness among the captives and that they must be subjected to strenuous production techniques in order to fully engage them. Thus, slavery has seen fewer innovations when compared to voluntary labour.
On the other hand, the perfection of production lines requires gradual improvements and long years of experience. The grinding mill has undergone several modifications to attain efficiency to portray human being nature of being genius in enhancing the production perspective (Early Draft, p 337). There is a lot of knowledge located within the society and the application has been simultaneous, illustrating an evolution in the specialization application of machinery. The perfection of specialization process is passed from one generation to another and is dependent on the rising human needs thus leading to slow but steady innovations to attain the maximum productivity (Smith, p 9).
Human beings have the tendency of being lazy. In this case, the production process will employ the use of force or motivation to engage different people. According to Smith, slaves were equally productive except that they viewed their duties as punishment as well as their masters' take that they may be lazy thus must be but under strict hard labour (Bentham, part 3, Chapter 2). The employees were motivated by occasional salaries and wages to enhance their performance. In this case, the wealth of the nation is created by motivating employees through salaries to encourage their innovations (Rosenburg, p 132,). The society provided factors that spearheaded developments and innovations on effective specialization techniques.
The process of specialization and effective production lies on human knowledge and goals to be achieved. According to Smith, the merchants will specialize in trading as the landowners concentrate on the agricultural activities. Consequently, a different need has led to driving in specific innovations to meet the requirements of society. Division of labour will only be enhanced by the level of knowledge that is possessed by a given group in society (Rosenburg, p 134). This division of activities sharpens the concentration at different levels. Using the history of philosophy, Smith provides an illustration where men discover what they want and set ways to attain their goals.
Creation of legitimate and illegitimate hierarchy
The hierarchy of production entails both production system as well as the organization of people in the society. The more complex the system appears the simpler duties and individual is taken to undertake in a production system (Rosenburg, page 135, Smith on the labour division). Different forces are involved in the working of the system to create different ranks during the specialization. This may make it be defective, thus, leading to illegitimate hierarchy thus encouraging labour division. This process is complicated in the modern industry where the production force is attached to capital and independent from labour (Silver, 2013).
Adam Ferguson ( 1973, pg 305-306) illustrates the illegitimate hierarchy, where the manufacturers benefit the most while the workers who have taken part in the greatest share of production have less to enjoy and are described to lie at waste. Consequently, there was a minimal consultation of the manufactures but the greatest share of production remains theirs. In this case, the labour division process is illustrated to possess some extent disadvantage that was overseen by Adam Smith in his suggestion. However, Marx noted that the employees would enjoy the legitimate salaries and wages paid to the workman.
The process of labour division results in different classes in society. According to the philosophy, particular class at the top of the pyramid will control, organize, and distribute factors of production as the majority at the base of the pyramid suffers from lack of knowledge on how to get the maximum benefits of their labour. Such societies are composed of individuals who cannot gain the full understanding of how they can channel the production process for the good of the peasant majority. The society is divided into classes like any other production process and the delegation of duties where the top citizens take advantage of lower citizens and influence the largest share of production (Smith, p 10).
From the evaluation, both civilized and uncivilized society experienced illegitimate hierarchy during the specialization process. However, the legitimatization of this process will ensure low-quality products and maximum benefits to the peasant majority. This will be unacceptable by specific groups that are situated at the top of the pyramid. Thus, a situation has been created with labour division in the process of shortening the production process (Smith, p 735). The understanding of the process of labour division is rarely understood in the society resulting in different classes that have different goals. This has sparked the emergence of classes and disparity in the distribution of resources.
Conclusion
Generally, labour division is the process of breaking down the production process to enhance efficiency. On the other hand, this process involves individuals who form the larger part of society to take part in innovations and improved production. In this case, knowledge is disseminated at the individual level, society, and emergence of hierarchy. Innovations among individuals are generated by personal goals and passion while on the other hand it can be directed by motivations and favours realized. The society has its perceptions that control how people engage in different production lines. The process of labour division has resulted in the creation of hierarchy that is either legitimate or illegitimate and operates in a similar manner as the company's management.
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