ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to fill a gap in studies of the division of labor by conceptualizing the division of labor in terms of close scrutiny of work itself, and especially the work of given projects that entail extensive sequences of tasks for their accomplishment. The aim of this conceptualization is to stimulate research into the nature of work itself and the organizations where it takes place. Eliot Freidson reviewed literature on division of labor and offered some suggestions for conceptualizing this important phenomenon in terms of work. The related concepts include actor accountability and accountability systems, which have bearing on the carrying out of types of work and their implicated tasks. Projects involve a course of action that entails a division of labor—meaning not only of actors but of actions. In carrying out any project—inventing a new model of computer, building a house, getting a voluntary organization off the ground—a multitude of tasks must sequentially and simultaneously be carried out.
