Differences In Division Of Labor Research Articles

Workload Distribution and Division of Labor in Cooperative Societies

Cooperative groups are ubiquitous in animals, as are the challenges of allocating labor to accomplish cooperative tasks, including territory defense, hunting, and brood care. Individual contributions can differ in two ways, both of which can influence fitness: group members can vary in overall helpfulness (workload) or they can specialize on different tasks (division of labor). In this review, we encourage additional, simultaneous study of both workload distribution and division of labor. Historically, workload distribution has been studied in the contexts of collective action and cooperative offspring care. Both areas of research aim to understand how shared benefits can emerge from individual contributions, but they remain poorly integrated. We argue that each of these literatures has strengths that could benefit the other, and we highlight potential areas of crosstalk. Next, we review the literature on division of labor in taxa other than the eusocial insects, discuss parallels and differences in division of labor between eusocial insects and other animals, and encourage more work on cooperative, noninsect taxa. Rigorous work on individual contributions to cooperative tasks will expand our understanding of the causes and consequences of individual variation and the evolutionary stability of social living.

Ethnicity and voters’ evaluations of political leadership: “lab-in-the-field” experiments in Russian regions

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an experimental test of ethnic-based bias in citizens’ evaluation of a political leader’s decision-making across three multi-ethnic regions of the Russian Federation (Sakha, Buryatia, and Tatarstan) and one mono-ethnic region (Arkhangel’sk Oblast). With variations in the intensity of ethnic loyalties, degree of titular ethnic group assimilation, and differences in an ethnic division of labor, Russian regions present an interesting site for the investigation of these conjectures. The experiment participants read a vignette describing a decision by a local mayor and assess the decision. We randomly vary the mayor’s ethnicity and policy choice. Our findings suggest that policy substance is the primary influence and dominates ethnicity when citizens evaluate public officials in three of the four regions. In the fourth region, Sakha in Northern Siberia, we provide analyses to explain the greater salience of ethnicity.

Racial Differences in Division of Labor in Colonies of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

We measured the age at onset of foraging in colonies derived from three races of European honey bees, Apis mellifera mellifera, Apis mellifera caucasica and Apis mellifera ligustica, using a cross‐fostering design that involved six unrelated colonies of each race. There was a significant effect of the race of the introduced bees on the age at onset of foraging: cohorts of A. m. ligustica bees showed the earliest onset, regardless of the race of the colony they were introduced to. There also was a significant effect of the race of the host colony: cohorts of bees introduced into mellifera colonies showed the earliest onset of foraging, regardless of the race of the bees introduced. Significant inter‐trial differences also were detected, primarily because of a later onset of foraging in trials conducted during the autumn (September–October). These results demonstrate differences among European races of honey bees in one important component of colony division of labor. They also provide a starting point for analyses of the evolution of division of labor under different ecological conditions.

Working Hard and Making Do: Surviving in Small Town America

The economic recovery of the 1990s brought with it a surge of new jobs, but the prospects for most working Americans improved little. Family income rose only slightly and the period witnessed a significant degradation of the quality of work as well as in what people could expect from their waged employment. In this book, Margaret K. Nelson and Joan Smith take a look inside the households of working-class Americans to consider how they are coping with large-scale structural changes in the economy, specifically how the downgrading of jobs has affected survival strategies, gender dynamics, and political attitudes. Drawing on both randomly distributed telephone surveys and in-depth interviews, Nelson and Smith explore the differences in the survival strategies of two groups of working-class households in a rural county: those in which at least one family member has been able to hold on to good work (a year-round, full-time job that carries benefits) and those in which nobody has been able to secure or retain steady employment. They find that households with good jobs are able to effectively use all of their labor power--they rely on two workers; they engage in on-the-side businesses; and they barter with friends and neighbors. In contrast, those living in families without at least one good job find themselves considerably less capable of deploying a complex, multi-faceted survival strategy. The authors further demonstrate that this difference between the two sets of households is accompanied by differences in the gender division of labor within the household and the manner in which individuals make sense of, and respond to, their employment.

Foraging differences between cross-fostered honeybee workers (Apis mellifera) of European and Africanized races

Foraging differences between cross-fostered honeybee workers of European and Africanized races in South America are described. Africanized workers began foraging at earlier ages than European workers in colonies of their own races, but cross-fostered workers began foraging at the same age as workers in the colonies in which they were placed. Some differences in the mean time spent foraging per hour and the mean number of flights per hour were also found. The results suggest two major factors determining differences in division of labor between Africanized and European bees: 1) the colony characteristics by which foraging age is determined, and 2) the responses of individual workers to hive environment. A hypothesis to explain these results is presented based on higher levels of foraging stimuli in Africanized colonies as well as a higher stimulus threshold for Africanized workers.