Markets and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Markets and Society - Essay Example But who is Smith? Adam Smith contributes to the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. He was born in born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland and later enjoyed scholarship at the University of Glasgow (Smith, 1994). At 14, he continued his studies at Balliol College at Oxford (Smith, 1994). He became a professor at the University of Glasgow teaching logic course in 1751 and extolled later as the chair of moral philosophy in 1752 (Smith, 1994). Some of Smith’s academic studies were inked in his work of Theory of Moral Sentiments publicized in 1759 (Smith, 1994). In 1764, Smith decided to leave the academe and tutor the Duke of Buccleuch. Only after he retired whence he started writing the book on Wealth of Nations. Smith remained single all his life and died in Edinburgh in 1790 (Henderson, 2007). Although Smith was considered as economist by heart, he was primarily a philosopher and his teachings are inspired by philosophy. Since the theory is philosophically explicated , the contemporary economic disciplined remained applicable up to these days (Smith, 1994). Smith is considered by economists worldwide as the â€Å"father of economics†. He wrote the most integrated and influential book â€Å"An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations† in 1776 (Smith, 1994). ... 1).† Smith was the first author who viewed the significance of the specialization and division of labor as primary source of productivity and the principle of â€Å"invisible hand† to illustrate the potential tendency of self-interest-motivated individuals to be directed to undertake works and collaborative activities in accordance to free market system and based on legislated economic and market policies (Smith, 1994; Henderson, 2007). Division of Labor & Contemporary Implications The increase of population, peoples’ migration, and increasing needs of urbanization found division of labor as mechanism to address problems on scarcity of goods and needs for trading. With labor being categorized based on their expertise and skills, companies created branches or divisions to meet its peculiar production needs with the use of technology. For instance, in the production of microSD chips, the ten persons are expected to produce at least a specific number per day. Hence, the division of labor remained significant up to these days because companies are still bound by targeted results with the highest level of industry as desired consequence. This is also true to agro-industrial company. For example, in a pineapple company, the farm-workers are divided into managers, ploughman, harrower, sower, reaper or harvester, pealer, cutter, canning, and labeling. The work forcers will also have that in-charge for marketing, distribution, and accountants. All of these functions are technologically assisted to keep pace with the improvement of trading relations; supply-demand factors; and by the drive for profit. Modern economists call this systematization of labor forces as optimization of performance management. In this theory, workers are