Overspecialization is when a person works in an excessively narrow
occupation or scientific field.
Effects
In work
In the workplace,
specialization of labor is used to divide up the workload in a manner that improves efficiency. However, holders of overspecialized positions tend to perform repetitive jobs, leading to
boredom
In conventional usage, boredom, , or tedium is an emotion characterized by Interest (emotion), uninterest in one's surrounding, often caused by a lack of distractions or occupations. Although, "There is no universally accepted definition of bo ...
, dissatisfaction, and lower-quality output.
In medicine
The breadth of medical knowledge has expanded vastly since the 1980s.
It has been argued that specialization is necessary in medicine to divide up the vast knowledge needed to tackle certain classes of diseases, such as
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
. However, specializing too narrowly leads to poor training;
unnecessary health care
Unnecessary health care (overutilization, overuse, or overtreatment) is health care provided with a higher volume or cost than is appropriate.
In the United States, where health care costs are the highest as a percentage of GDP, overuse was the ...
; low-quality care, especially in regions with poor medical infrastructure; and knowledge that can rapidly become outdated. Overspecialization detracts from physicians' ability to identify and treat problems in patients.
One proposed solution is to use
database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
s that streamline the obtaining of necessary information and knowledge, while teaching medicine to a depth that the human mind can handle.
In academia
Modern universities offer a large number of
academic major
An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word ''major'' (also called ''con ...
s where students can pursue research. However, overspecialization is considered to be a serious problem in
research
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
because it prevents academics from assessing the relationship between different fields in order to solve certain problems.
The
Ph.D system has been criticized for encouraging overspecialization, which can leave students ill-prepared for corporate jobs.
[ John A. Armstrong, "Rethinking the PhD", originally appeared in ''Issues in Science and Technology''.]
References
{{Employment
Problems in business economics
Economic anthropology
Criticism of academia
Medical education