Specialization

“ Simultaneously with the differentiation of work, language changed, becoming itself more differentiated.
The efficiency reached in specialization is higher than that of direct action and of low levels of labor division. With each new specialization of a mediating element, humans constitute a body of practical knowledge, in the form of experience, that can be used again and again. This body of knowledge reflects the complexity of the task and the scale in which it is exercised. ”

“ Because, you see, specialized as we are, we are not quite specialized, we are specialized under duress, and at the first glimpse of a chance we abandon our cradles and drop our pots and pans and go for the vast and elegant side possibilities—of our specialization. Out we come, looking for the fun the men are having. ”

“ Of the many elements on which industrial development depends, the question of specialization looms large.
Under the general term "specialization" we include all plans and methods of work by which the scope of activity of man is concentrated.
The highest degree of skill of artist or worker is attained by concentration of energies to a restricted range of work. It is through practice that the skill is acquired. The highest skill and highest ability is attained by the degree of interested attention and number of repetitions of a given kind of work. ”

“ Dangers of Extreme Specialization.—Moreover, the tendency now in all departments of industry and professional service is toward a specialization which often defeats its own end and lessens rather than increases the usefulness of its own department. "We want not workers," says Emerson, "but men working." We want not specialists in the extreme sense but all-round students devoting themselves to one sphere of research or activity with a constant sense of its relation to all other spheres of thought and action. ”

“ Analysis by function implies functional specialization in research and a similar tendency in business practice. Without specialization there can be no adequate analysis of any large and complex body of facts. With too intense specialization there is always danger that the assembling and digesting of facts, and especially the conclusions drawn from them, will reflect some peculiar slant of an individual or of a particular specialty. ”

“ Being a feeble person I must advance from point to point, accepting limitations; but just as fast as I can, having mastered those limitations, I shall cast them aside and press on into ever broader regions.”
But I said specialization was fundamentally justified through the organization of society, because by its division of toil we contribute our share to the total of human knowledge; and yet the popular objector declares that we are presumptuous, and because we have mastered our own specialty we are apt to assume ourselves capable of pronouncing judgment over the whole field. ”

“ Clear knowledge becomes possible only through precise observation. Now specialization is nothing but this necessary limitation of attention; and we, as specialists, are merely carrying out on a large scale what every human being must practise in some degree whenever he knows. We employ the process persistently, and for the sake of science are willing to hold ourselves steadily to a single line of observation. ”

“ But how could specialization be more strikingly illustrated than by a system which limits a boy's attention between the ages of twelve and twenty to linguistic studies to the almost entire exclusion of a knowledge of that universe in which his life is to be passed, and which so limits his intellectual training that his powers of observation are left undeveloped, his judgments in respect to material relations unformed, and even his natural conceptions of truth distorted? ”

“ The still more wonderful Twentieth Century will swing back to a balanced specialization. The medical colleges are learning that they can not turn out successful eye and ear specialists, the law schools that the constitutional or interstate commerce lawyer is the production of a later period. The successful specialist must first have the foundation of an all-round training. Broadly speaking, one applies everything of something only by learning something of everything. We all believe in specialization. Where we differ is as to the point where specialization stops and overspecialization begins. ”

“ Civilization has been enormously advanced by the early division of labor and by its later corollary of specialization. Civilization is now dependent on the effective co-ordination of specialists. As society expands, some method of drawing together the various specialists must be found. ”

“ It is true that specialization carried out in some ideal way may provide just the conditions needed for the best social order, but this can be only in so far as individuals become specialized within the whole of society, so to speak, in which individuals continue to have a common life. ”

“ We must acknowledge that our confidence 131 in specialization encounters many doubts in the community. It may be well, then, to place ourselves where that community stands and ask the general public to tell us why it doubts us, what there is in our specialized attitude which it thinks defective, and what are the complaints which it is disposed to bring against us? I will try to take the position of devil’s advocate and plead the cause of the objector to specialization.
Specialization, it is said, leads to ignorance; indeed it rather aims at ignorance than knowledge. ”

“ We maintain that in the interests of both science and industry, as well as of society as a whole, every human being, without distinction of birth, ought to receive such an education as would enable him, or her, to combine a thorough knowledge of science with a thorough knowledge of handicraft. We fully recognize the necessity of specialization of knowledge, but we maintain that specialization must follow general education, and that general education must be given in science and handicraft alike. ”

“ Dangers of Specialization in Professional Work.—We are beginning to see that this process may be carried so far that a shallow and a cheap person may so fill the exacting and narrow routine of a specialty of manual work or professional service as to check ambition and power to achieve a full and rich personality. ”

“ In another direction a great increase of specialization has taken place—in the preparation for business. Our colleges of business administration rival our scientific schools in the exactness of their aim, and the precision of their effort. ”

“ We are compelled to specialize at last in order to forge ahead, but it is more important to be a man, round, full, rich in contents, than to be an expert lawyer, physician, or mining engineer. The early and rigid specialization, sometimes extending even down into the high school, tends to sacrifice the man to the profession. ”

“ In these days of increasing specialization what we need is to interest in our own problems, not only those who are tilling the same fields with ourselves, but even more, those who live on the other side of the fence which surrounds us: to call to them across the frontier, to seek their advice and assistance and the benefit of their experience. ”

“ Here, then, was the sprouting of modern civilization—the beginning of that specializing of each man in his own particular direction that has carried the world to its present [39] high state of expertness in so many fields. Slowly steadily, and inevitably this principle of specialization has been developed. With the increase of laws, for example, certain men came to give them special study and then to sell their knowledge and skill to other men who had no opportunity for such study. ”

“ Specialization saves tools for, either each kind of work must be most ineffectively done, or there must be provided for each worker a complete set of tools which thus will be used rarely and will rust out rather than wear out. ”

“ There is some ground for identifying specialized education with vocational education, largely because specialization has some reference to the division of labor and the diversity of occupations, and for identifying general education with liberal education because the efforts of general education are directed toward the liberal training of man as man. ”

“ Although specialization was known to ancient society, its foundation was one of individual will rather than basic training in facts. With the passage of time more and more knowledge developed till the single volume could no longer hold all the known facts of a science and what had been titles of chapters became the titles of books. ”

“ We find that in keeping with the trend toward specialization, the machine shop is now manned and directed by specialists, whose close application to the technical science of their respective specialties has in a degree obscured other elements with which their interests should be co-ordinated. Among these we generally find the so-called human element. This feature of specialization, which is the natural result of concentration and undivided attention to the work in hand, has entailed a string of consequences that has lessened the spirit of fellowship and co- operation. ”

“ We assume that the requisite degree of specialization will be secured by adopting a system whereby study leave will be granted at some suitable time after three years’ service, when a scientific officer should have developed the distinct bent.’ In other words, secure a dark horse and wait till he develops a distinct bent! ”

“ There are not only specialized classes, but there is specialization within the occupational groups. An essential rule for the building of a just society is that each individual shall find his place in the social order and shall fulfil his special function. ”

“ Of late years even farming has become an occupation in which special knowledge is supposed to have certain advantages. In every kind of practical work specialization, founded on a more or less arduous course of preparation, is coming to prevail; and in this way individuals, possessing the advantages of the necessary gifts and discipline, are obtaining definite and stimulating opportunities for personal efficiency and independence. ”

“ In effect, to specialize means to be aware of and to master tools that correspond to a step in the sequence leading to the desired result-the final word, in keeping with our example. Conversely, what sometimes looks like excessive specialization in our day-e.g., in medicine, physics, mathematics, electronics, computer science, transportation-is the result of the propensity of each mediating element to engender a need for further mediations, which reflect expectations for efficiency. ”

“ The chief reason in favor of specialization is that the field of knowledge is so vast that it is absolutely necessary for every college student—engineering or otherwise—to specialize; and in engineering this specialization is vitally important, since fundamental principles can be taught most effectively in connection with their application to specialized problems. ”

“ Each group constitutes a specialty,—a specialty intensified in character as, in order to escape the difficulties of maintenance just pointed out, the number of groups is allowed to increase. By insistence on specialization regard for general culture is driven into a subordinate place. The advocates of prescription maintain that there are not half a dozen ground-plans of perfected humanity. ”

“ One of the important problems in industrial management is the extent to which specialization should be practiced.
On one hand we see the ill effects of a routine repetition where there has been an overdose of repetition—one that has gone beyond the beneficial point—and on the other hand, we find that the greatest achievements in the sciences and professions have been wrought by those who have concentrated in a way that has given them a higher development. ”

“ We have now discussed the obstacles to specialization which lie in the way of about three fourths, numerically, of the population of the civilized world—one half being women, and half the rest farmers. We may now pass to those industries and professions aside from farming which must be carried on in the country, or in villages, as well as in large towns and cities. We find them less highly specialized in the country than in the city. ”

“ The specialist's lack of all-round capacity is natural and notorious. Hence most serious results follow the slightest dislocation of national economy. This specialization has also important psychological effects. ”

“ The whole vexing problem of insuring fairly wide cultivation along with opportunities for specialization is conveniently settled by giving general training, most of it remote from business work, for two years, after which the student is considered cultivated enough to withstand the blighting effect of specialization. ”

“ A fourth tendency is the result of the specialization of labor in its higher forms. As all industries become more highly organized, greater preparation for work is required wherever labor ceases to be purely mechanical. Trade schools, technical schools, and schools for training in special work are everywhere demanded, and the demand must in time be fully met. ”

“ The stream of thought commences to broaden on both sides as we approach the eighteenth century, and broadens still further, and deepens, in the nineteenth, when specialization occurs or continues in anthropo-geography, biology, jurisprudence and economics, anthropology, sociology, and literature, and latterly in physics. ”

“ No doubt specialization goes hand in hand with develop- ment ; but national reform here is still in the amoebic stage, and no such specialization as this would imply is as yet practicable. We all remember the statesman who was said to have given to a Party the talents designed to serve man- kind. ”