Labour cooperation

Association of labour

Description

Organizing the activities of individual workers in a group on the basis of their separate skills or task assignments to produce an output or product attributed to the group.

Context

Informal labour cooperation is a primitive process for addressing any task beyond the capacity of a single worker. The strategy antecedes man. It is based on the concept of the division of labour and may be applied whether the skills or assignments are qualitatively similar or are unique to individual workers. Through the history of the development of economic roles in society, the strategy has been applied to improve the quality and quantity of the products of group labour. Formal labour cooperation became necessary as the complexity of group operations increased.

Implementation

In its modern form, the strategy is applied to complex processes which are broken down or categorized into steps or simple elements within the process. Each step is assigned to an individual or to a group of individuals with similar assignments. The strategy operates on all steps in relation to each other and to the product. It thus applies to all the workers committed to the process. The strategy involves analysis, planning and cooperation for its effective application. It promotes specialization, education for the improvement of skills and cooperative effort.

Claim

The systems upon which modern society depends for its sustenance and survival require the coordination of labour, as many of these processes involve an array of tasks beyond the comprehension, much less the capacity, of an individual.

Counter-claim

Labour cooperation undermines the capacity of the individual to survive or to create a product by the use of his or her personal resources. It thus restricts individual options to those which contribute to the corporate effort.

Overemphasis on this approach tends to limit human creativity.