Personnel of the organization in market conditions. Labor as a process and as an economic resource

INTRODUCTION

Labor potential and labor resources of society in the system of economic resources

It is customary to distinguish four types of economic resources: land, labor, capital and entrepreneurial ability. These types of resources are sometimes also called factors of production. Term land in economic theory means natural resources, i.e. area, location and fertility of the land, minerals, climate, forest, water reserves, hydropower, etc. However, natural resources play not only a passive role as a source of raw materials and energy. Due to its special physico-chemical and biological properties, the earth is an active resource that provides the possibility of a multiple increase in the cost of production compared to the amount of costs (for example, an ear growing from one grain). Thus, land is one of the important sources of the "pure product", i.e. Togo, what remains after the reimbursement of the costs incurred.

Labor as economic the resource is usually characterized by the number of employees, their qualifications, the duration and intensity of the performance of production functions. It is customary to estimate labor costs by the number of man-hours worked and personnel costs, including wages and social benefits.

Capital characterized by technical and economic indicators of equipment, tools, materials, etc. Money is not considered an economic resource, since it does not participate in the production process (unlike land, labor and equipment).

Many authors highlight entrepreneurial ability, or enterprise, as a separate type of economic resources. The entrepreneur's abilities are manifested in the rational use of labor, land and capital, the ability to find and apply new scientific, technical, organizational, artistic, commercial ideas. Entrepreneurial activity is carried out in conditions of significant uncertainty, objectively due to changes in the needs of people and market conditions.

When using economic resources, their owners receive income in the form of rent (from land), wages (from labor), interest (from capital) and profit (from entrepreneurial abilities).

The existing classification of economic resources does not take into account a number of important factors that determine the results of production activities. First of all, this applies to labor resources, which are not reduced to the cost of working time and personnel costs. In addition, entrepreneurial abilities are just one of the types of human creative abilities. Due to these shortcomings of the traditional scheme for classifying economic resources, when substantiating their structure, it is advisable to proceed from the components of labor potential: health, morality, creativity, activity (passionarity), organization, education, professionalism, working time resources . These components can relate both to an individual and to various economic systems.

All over the world came to the recognition that the main productive force is man. Each employee, individual groups and society as a whole have the opportunity and ability to implement and improve labor activity significantly improve its efficiency.

Each component of the labor potential is a relatively independent type of economic resources. Until recently, the main focus was on the resources of working time (number of personnel). However, the development of modern production is determined primarily by such resources as creativity, activity, education and professionalism. The role of morality as an important economic resource is being increasingly recognized. This role is primarily due to the huge losses from crime that almost all countries, including Russia, bear.

Thus, economic resources are components of nature, labor potential and means of production that determine the possibilities of output. Therefore, the labor potential of society and the labor resources of society are very important for economic development. It is about them in the future and will be discussed.

Chapter 1.The concept, structure and indicators of labor potential

1.1 The concept of labor potential

A generalizing indicator of the process of formation and development of a person in labor activity is labor potential of society. The word "potential" usually denotes the means, reserves, sources that can be used, as well as the capabilities of an individual, group of individuals, society in a particular setting.

All over the world came to the recognition that the main productive force is man. Each worker, individual groups and society as a whole have the opportunities and abilities to carry out and improve labor activity, to significantly increase its efficiency.

The term "potential" was introduced into scientific circulation 10-15 years ago. The interpretation of this term means that someone (an individual person, the primary labor collective, society as a whole) has hidden, not yet manifested opportunities or abilities in the relevant areas of their life. Defining this economic category, it should be borne in mind that the potential (economic, production, labor) is a generalized, collective characteristic of resources, tied to place and time.

The ability of people to implement a wide range of functions (production, organizational and managerial, socio-political, etc.) in the process of socially useful activities is determined by the qualities of a person as:

* specific (labor) resource and the basis of production (the qualities of the individual as part of the population);

* the main productive force and the subject of production relations (the qualities of the individual as a worker - the bearer of the ability to work, the creator of material and spiritual wealth);

* a member of society (the qualities of an individual as a socially formed personality, a member of an association of workers, a participant in the management of public affairs).

Because of this, the total ability to work, which determines the degree of possible participation of any person in socially useful activities, can be characterized not only from the point of view of psychophysiological suitability and professional readiness to perform specific labor functions, but also in terms of time and labor costs, as well as in terms of the degree of civil and spiritual maturity of the individual.

The potential, acting in the unity of spatial and temporal characteristics, concentrates in itself three levels of connections and relationships at the same time:

* the first level, reflecting the past, i.e. representing a set of properties accumulated by the system in the process of its formation and determining its ability to function and develop;

* the second level characterizing the present in terms of practical application and use of available abilities;

* the third level, focused on development: in the process of labor activity, the employee not only realizes his abilities, but also acquires new skills.

1.2. Labor potential of an employee

The labor potential of an individual is formed under the influence of such qualities as the ability and desire to work, initiative in work and economic entrepreneurship, creative activity, etc.

Thus, we can talk about the labor potential of an individual, enterprise, city, region, the whole society, since it is a combination of all human abilities to work.

The initial structure-forming unit of labor potential is the labor potential of an employee (personality), which forms the basis for the formation of labor potentials of higher structural levels.

In addition, two important factors should be taken into account. Firstly, until the moment a person is employed by labor, it is possible to speak about his labor force only conditionally as about physical and spiritual ability to work in general, as about a possible potential labor contribution. Secondly, the result of the use of individual labor power is the real labor contribution of the worker, it is expressed in a specific product, as well as in a certain level of labor efficiency achieved by the worker.

The labor potential of an employee is not a constant value, it is constantly changing. The working capacity of a person and the creative abilities of an employee accumulated in the course of labor activity increase with the development and improvement of knowledge and skills, improvement of working and living conditions. But they can also decrease if, in particular, the state of health of the employee worsens, the working regime becomes tougher, etc.

The labor potential of an employee includes:

* psycho-physiological potential - abilities and inclinations of a person, his state of health, performance, endurance, type of nervous system, etc.;

* qualification potential - the volume, depth and versatility of general and special knowledge, labor skills and abilities that determine the ability of an employee to work of a certain content and complexity;

* personal potential - the level of civic consciousness and social maturity, the degree of assimilation by the employee of the norms of attitude to work, value orientations, interests, needs in the world of work.

The labor potential of an employee depends on the degree of mutual agreement in the development of psychophysiological, qualification and personal potentials.

1.3. Labor potential of the enterprise

In relation to an enterprise, labor potential is the limiting value of the possible participation of workers in production, taking into account their psychophysiological characteristics, the level of professional knowledge, accumulated experience in the presence of the necessary organizational and technical conditions.

The labor potential of an enterprise as a system is always greater than the sum of its constituent parts - the individual labor potentials of individual workers. The very association of workers into a single and systematically organized labor process gives rise to the effect of collective labor, which exceeds the sum of the forces of workers acting individually.

Thus, if the totality of the physical and spiritual abilities of a person is the basis of the labor potential of the individual, then the productive force arising from the joint activities of various individuals forms the basis of the labor potential of the enterprise team. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that labor collectives have different potentials depending on the territorial location of the enterprise, industry affiliation, production size, gender and age structure, etc. In addition, each enterprise has its own characteristics of team formation, labor traditions, and relationships between employees.

The structure of the labor potential of an enterprise is a ratio of various demographic, social, functional, professional and other characteristics of groups of workers and relations between them.

In the labor potential of the enterprise, the following components can be distinguished: personnel, professional, qualification and organizational.

The personnel component includes: qualification potential (professional knowledge, skills) and educational potential (cognitive abilities).

The professional structure of the team is associated with changes in the content of labor under the influence of scientific and technical progress, which causes the emergence of new and the withering away of old professions, the complication of labor operations.

The qualification structure is determined by qualitative changes in the labor potential (growth of skills, knowledge, skills) and reflects, first of all, changes in its personal component.

The organizational component of the labor potential of the enterprise includes a high organization and culture of work, which is expressed in clarity, rhythm, consistency of labor efforts and "a high degree of employee satisfaction with their work. resourcesDiploma work >> Economics

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By A. Marshall's definition work, is “any mental and physical effort, undertaken in part or in whole with the aim of achieving some result, apart from the satisfaction derived directly from the work itself.[Marshall. T. 1. S. 124]. Noting that in this definition he follows Jevons, who referred to work as "only painful efforts", Marshall emphasizes that "most people work much more than if they worked only because of the direct satisfaction received from work" [Ibid. ]. Illustrating this idea, he writes further that the peasant works in the garden mainly to obtain a material result, “but a rich man who does the same work, although he can be proud of the fact that he does it well, is probably of little interest in getting from this money-saving work" [Ibid.].

Modern writers characterize labor in much the same way as Marshall and Jevons. For example, V. Inozemtsev believes that labor is an activity performed "under the direct or indirect influence of external material necessity."

Emphasizing the painful, forced side of labor is primarily due to the fact that for thousands of years material wealth was the result of the efforts of the lower strata of society (slaves, serfs, the proletariat), who worked 12-15 hours a day for meager remuneration. Science and art to XVIII in. mainly aristocrats, clergymen, children of merchants, etc. could be engaged.

Over the past 150-200 years, the structure of GDP has fundamentally changed developed countries in real, branch and professional aspects. The structure of the population has also changed. If in the last century more than two thirds of the population of England, France and Germany were workers and peasants, at present their share does not exceed one third. The predominant part of the population of developed countries are engineers, scientists, doctors, teachers, cultural figures, entrepreneurs, etc. Calculations show that it is those who are engaged in creativity, the creation of something new, that make the greatest contribution to the increase national wealth developed countries.

Modern economic theory pays more and more attention to a comprehensive study of the cost of human time, including providing material goods, study, education of children, rest. In particular, the upbringing of children in a family is an example of socially useful work, which, on the one hand, brings a lot of joy, and on the other hand, requires significant efforts, which, to one degree or another, must be compensated by society.

Between those who are engaged in material production, in science, art, the spiritual sphere, there is a direct or indirect exchange of results of activity both through the system of markets and through state and public organizations, i.e., all the considered types of labor in one way or another participate in economic exchange, establishing the degree of their usefulness for various people and periods of time.

In the above definitions, the concept of "labor" was considered as a type of human activity, i.e. as a process. We believe that this process is characterized by three main features: purpose, content and motives. The main purpose of labor is the production of goods and resources; its content is the expedient transformation of natural resources and the resulting costs of time and human energy; Motives are the reasons that motivate a person to work.

concept "work process" it is expedient to definethrough more general concept - "human activity". This concept characterizes all types of human activity: work, eating, visiting theaters, walking in the woods, etc.

As can be seen from these examples, the concept of "human activity" in general case belongs to the field of physiology. Socio-economic aspects of activity are related to the reasons that encourage a person to spend time and energy on the production of goods and resources necessary for the household (the one who works and his family) and (or) the enterprise that ensures the satisfaction of the needs of society through a system of markets.

Thus, we can formulate the following definition.

Labor as a process is the human activity to produce goods and resources for household consumption or for economic exchange, or both.

As for the satisfaction received from the labor process, which is stipulated in the above definition of Marshall, it significantly depends on the share of creativity in this type of activity, its goals, conditions for implementation, as well as on the individual characteristics of the employee. The more satisfaction a person receives from the labor process, the more in normal social conditions benefit to the company and society.

In economic literature resources also called factors of production. A. Marshall singled out four such factors: land, labor, capital and organization of production. At the same time, he emphasized: “In a sense, there are only two factors of production - nature and man. Capital and organization are the result of the work of man, carried out with the help of nature and guided by his ability to foresee the future and his readiness to take care of the future ... from every point of view, man is the center of the problem of production, as well as the problem of consumption, and also the resulting problem of relations between the first two, which has a double designation - “distribution” and “exchange” ... Man is both the goal of production and its factor” [Marshall. T. 1. S. 209]. Modern economists, following mainly Marshall, usually refer to land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurial ability as economic resources.

The only explanation for the existing classification of economic resources is its relationship with sources of income: from land - rent; from labor (employees) - wage; from capital - interest (dividends); from entrepreneurial abilities - entrepreneurial profit. However, the indicated external correspondence between the structure of resources and income does not reflect the essence of economic processes.

Based on the above considerations, it is advisable to divide the set of economic resources into three types.

1. Nature (natural resources).

2. Labor potential.

3. Resources produced by man.

Thus the term "work" has two essentially different meanings: labor process and labor potential.

Enterprise Resources

When creating an enterprise, its founders have a clear understanding of what it is created for: what product will be produced, or what service will be provided, or what work will be performed. On the one hand, this condition is the key to the successful functioning of the enterprise, because the product of its activity must have its consumer or buyer. On the other hand, the production of a product, the provision of a service, and the performance of work presuppose the presence of a certain composition of resources.

The resources used in the production process, which form the basis of the potential of an enterprise (organization), are divided into the following types: land, labor, fixed and working capital, financial resources, information resources and entrepreneurial abilities. Quality, optimal quantity and ratio of resources, their rational use predetermine the final results economic activity enterprises.

This section details traditional views enterprise resources.

Labor resources and personnel of enterprises

Labor as an economic resource

The main source of the wealth of society is labor. Labor - is the process of realizing physical and mental abilities a person in the production of products or expedient activity, in the course of which he modifies and adapts natural objects to satisfy his needs. Labor characterizes the totality of a person's physical, intellectual, creative and other abilities necessary for the production of various material and spiritual benefits. AT general view any labor activity or ability to work can be characterized by the number of able-bodied workers in the organization, the level of their professional and qualification training, labor efficiency, labor motivation and other economic indicators. In the specific conditions of production of goods, the labor process can be determined by costs and results, labor productivity, labor intensity of products, labor intensity, costs of maintaining and developing personnel, remuneration of workers, etc. There are alpha labor (labor regulated by the production process, the performer does not introduce anything new) and beta labor (creative, creative, innovative labor).

Agricultural labor is special kind labor, which is a process that takes place between man and nature in order to meet needs, primarily in food products. It should be noted that agricultural labor has a number of features - it is the dependence of labor efficiency on natural, primarily weather and climate, conditions and land quality; seasonality of labor use; the combination of a number of labor functions by many employees, which is caused by the variety of types of work and short terms their implementation; this is labor, often little mechanized and not automated, heavy and unattractive; often this is work in a personal subsidiary plot.

The concept of "labor process" is narrower than the "production process". The labor process includes three elements: means of labor, objects of labor, and labor itself. Obviously, labor will never lose its defining role in the production process. The labor process is the consumption of labor power. The same number of workers may differ in their total ability to work due to differences in preparedness, age, attitude to work, etc., and hence the unequal amount of labor (both abstract and concrete) that they can implement in production process. Therefore, some experts talk about the different labor potential of groups of workers with the same number of workers.

Distinguish between the concepts of "labor resources" and "labor force". Human Resources - is a socio-economic category that characterizes the potential reserves of labor that society has on this stage its development or the able-bodied part of the population, the totality of individual workers. Work force - it is the totality of the physical and spiritual abilities of the worker for the production of use value. Turning into labor force, labor resources acquire qualitative certainty. The labor force is characterized by different physical data and abilities, unequal qualifications, mobility, and labor, being inseparable from a person, inevitably includes social, psychological and political aspects.

The concepts of "labor resources" and "labor force" differ not only quantitatively, but also in content. The labor force also includes the labor force. Labor resources make sense only in the territorial aspect, while the labor force is applicable to any economic unit.

Labor resources are divided into economically active (employed, unemployed) and economically inactive (non-working pensioners and the disabled) population. The boundaries of labor resources are objective (the male population is aged 16 to 60, the female population is 16 to 55), but they can also have a legal expression. For example, for female machine operators with 15 years of experience, the upper limit of working age is 50 years.

AT economic activity distinguish the concept labor potential - integral characteristic of quantity, quality and measure of total ability to work various groups of people. Within its framework, personnel potential is distinguished - the ability of the main composition of skilled workers to create certain material and spiritual values.

The personnel potential of an enterprise, according to individual experts, in the broadest sense of the word, is the skills and abilities of employees that can be used to improve efficiency in various areas of production, in order to generate income (profit) or to achieve a certain social effect.

In its most general form, the concept of "labor (personnel) potential" characterizes certain opportunities that can be mobilized to achieve a specific goal. Distinguish between the labor potential of society, organization and employee. The labor potential of society is the total labor potential of organizations, and the labor potential of an organization is the aggregate of the labor potential of its employees. The labor potential of the employee - is a combination of physical and intellectual qualities of a person, which determine his ability in certain conditions to achieve the maximum possible outcomes and improve in the process. The labor potential of an employee is not a constant value and depends on a number of factors. The accumulation of new knowledge and skills, the improvement of working conditions can increase it, and the deterioration of the worker's health can reduce it.

Labor potential closely related to employee's personal potential, which represents a possible working capacity, its resource opportunities in the field of labor.

The following personal potentials of the employee are distinguished:

• - psychophysiological - what constitutes its performance;
• - cognitive - what he knows;
• - value-worldview - what he appreciates and what he focuses on;
• - need-motivational - what motivates him to activity;
• - communication - with whom and how he communicates;
• - creative - what and how creates, expresses itself;
• - labor (professional qualification) - what he is capable of;
• - leadership - whether he is able to lead;
• - command - is it capable of cooperation, collective interaction.

The main task in the course of practical activities of enterprises is the maximum use of the potential capabilities of employees.

The labor collective of the organization is made up of employees employed on it. Therefore, the labor potential of an enterprise means the total labor capacity of one hundred employees, resource opportunities in the field of labor of the payroll of the organization based on their age, physical capabilities, existing knowledge and professional qualifications.

The main components of the labor (personnel) potential include: health, education, morality, creativity, professionalism. All these characteristics can be applied both to an individual person and to a group of people, an enterprise, a region and an entire country.

The objective price of labor power is determined in the free labor market and contributes to improving its quality. labor market - it's a collection economic relations in the field of labor force reproduction, its purchase and sale. Wherein labor cost represents the sum of the costs (costs) of employers associated with the maintenance and use of labor. These costs are divided into straight (direct wages; pay for non-working hours; bonuses and gifts not included in the payroll; expenses for food, drinks and other payments in kind received in the course of economic activity) and indirect (housing costs of employees, which are borne by the employer; social security costs of employers; vocational training; spending on social services; other labor costs; taxes treated as labor costs).

It should be noted that any economic system involves the exploitation of labor - the rejection of part of the surplus value, which is withdrawn by the employer. Each person has the opportunity to sell the labor force that is his property. It is determined by the reserves of physical and mental energy of a person, health, age and natural data. The market economy is characterized by the absence of coercion to work, the rejection of the regulation of the movement of labor resources and labor force, the complete freedom of the employee in deciding on employment, labor relations are regulated by a contract on a contract basis.

In the planned economy, there was forced labor, not working on disrespectful reasons citizens were brought to justice, the distribution of labor resources was directive. Nevertheless, in a market economy, the need for state regulation of the labor market is obvious. regulation can take different forms- income policy, social security, etc. The main impact on the labor market is carried out by the state by establishing minimum size wages.

One of the determining factors of production is labor.
The carrier of labor, i.e., the labor force of a person, is called the human factor.
The part of the country's population that has the ability and opportunity to participate in labor forms the labor force.
Close to labor resources, but a broader concept is "labor potential".
Labor potential is the part of the country's population that forms labor resources, taking into account those persons who can potentially change labor resources in one direction or another.
These three categories, taken together, describe the country's labor factor from different angles.
Unlike other factors of production, labor has its own characteristics. The main one is that labor is inseparable from a person, from his labor force and therefore has a social and political aspect. It is this circumstance that determines the different approaches of economists to its study. Thus, in Western economic literature, labor is considered a commodity, in contrast to Marxist theory, where the commodity is not labor, but a person's ability to work, his labor power.
An important conclusion for Marxism follows from this premise: since the commodity is not labor, but labor power, then it is not the entire product of labor that is paid in the form of wages, but only a part of it, necessary for the reproduction of the value of labor power. Another part of the product of labor is appropriated by the capitalist free of charge.
In contrast to the Marxist class approach, in Western theories, labor is considered mainly from the point of view of its organization and management.
So, some researchers identify handicraft, technocratic, innovative types of labor management, corresponding to pre-industrial, industrial and scientific and technical options for economic growth (Table 17.1).
Table 17.1 Types of labor management
Craft management is characterized by manual production (manus - hand, texture - production), the presence of a division of labor (for example, the production of a carriage required the division of labor between joiners, carpenters, etc.), the subordination of a previously independent worker to a single team and discipline.
TECHNOCRATIC MANAGEMENT presupposes a transition from manual labor to machine labor, a deepening of the division of labor, rigid forms of economic coercion, and the separation of managerial labor into an independent type of activity. In the course of changing its material base (improving technology), this type of management went through several stages. The transition to technocratic management took place in late XIX and the beginning of the twentieth century. and is associated with the name of F. Taylor.
Taylorism includes methods based on the timing of each operation a worker performs. In accordance with it, useless movements of the worker are eliminated and the most perfect ones are selected. These operating principles formed the basis of scientific organization labor."
The next stage of technocratic management is associated with the name of G. Ford.
Fordism is based on assembly line production, which sets the pace of work, reduces costs, increases production and, thereby, labor productivity.
30-40s 20th century marked by the inclusion in the technocratic management of mental and social components: social security, the establishment of a minimum level of wages, overtime pay, the introduction of safety measures, etc. To a large extent, this was done under the influence of the social achievements of the Soviet Union.
In the 50-60s. the theory of “human relations” is being introduced into technocratic management, which proves that people like independence in decision-making, the absence of petty guardianship, respect for them and their work. In accordance with this, the mode of operation is being revised, the dependence of remuneration on the result of work is increasing, forms of “worker participation in profits” are being introduced, etc.
The theory of "human capital" appeared in the 60s. 20th century in connection with the increasing role of the human factor in the conditions of scientific and technological revolution. It was developed by representatives of the neoclassical direction G. Becker, J. Mintzer, T. Schultz and others. In their opinion, two factors interact in production - “physical capital”, which includes the means of production, and “human capital”, which includes acquired knowledge, skills, energy. The value of "human capital" is estimated by the potential income that it can bring.
Human capital is created when an individual invests in himself by paying for education and skills that are gradually lost and must be replaced. There are three types of "depreciation of educational potential":
loss of accumulated knowledge, especially those that are rarely applied in daily activities specialist;
obsolescence of knowledge as a consequence of the progress of science and the increase in the flow of information. It is associated with the transition from servicing one generation of technology to another, more complex one (from a typewriter to a computer, etc.);
functional aging of knowledge, requiring a complete change of specialty.
INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT is associated with the transition to a new technological way production, which required the involvement of a highly qualified "human resource" capable of making independent decisions, being loyal to the company and ensuring high productivity and quality of work. Methods of its application are in a state of development.

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1.2.2. labor in the system of economic resources

In the economic literature, resources are also called factors of production. Marshall singled out four such factors: land, labor, capital and organization of production. At the same time, he emphasized: “In a sense, there are only two factors of production - nature and man. Capital and organization are the result of the work of man, carried out with the help of nature and guided by his ability to foresee the future and his readiness to take care of the future ... from every point of view, man is the center of the problem of production, as well as the problem of consumption, and also the resulting problem of relations between the first two, which has a double designation - “distribution” and “exchange” ... Man is both the goal of production and its factor” [Marshall. T. 1.S. 209]. Modern economists, following mainly Marshall, usually refer to land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurial ability as economic resources.

The term "land" is used as a synonym for the term "natural resources"; the term "labor" refers to the cost of working time or the number of employees; the term "capital" characterizes buildings, structures, equipment used in the production of goods; The term "entrepreneurial ability" refers to the activity of rational use land, labor and capital.

These terms cannot be recognized as adequate to the essence of the objects they designate. Thus, land is only a part of natural resources. Labor, as shown above, is primarily the process of converting resources into goods1. Capital is a broad concept characterizing, in general, any source of income: land, Creative skills people, machines, buildings, etc. The terms “capital resources”, “capital goods” used by some authors [Sanders. S. 20; Dictionary of Economics (Collins). P. 203] do not clarify the essence of the phenomenon. For example, not only equipment is a capital good, but also jewelry, securities, positions in government bodies (for some individuals), etc. , which in its meaning should refer to the factor "labor".

The only explanation for the existing classification of economic resources is its relationship with sources of income: from land - rent; from labor (employees) - wages; from capital - interest (dividends); from entrepreneurial abilities - entrepreneurial profit. However, the indicated external correspondence between the structure of resources and income does not reflect the essence of economic processes.

1 “The phrase “land”, “labor”, “capital” would be more balanced if the expression “labor” meant “workers” [Marshall. T. 1. S. 208].

Based on the above considerations, it is advisable to divide the set of economic resources into three types.

Nature (natural resources).

Labor potential.

Man-made resources.

Nature as a type of resource is characterized by the area, location and fertility of the land, minerals, climate, forests, water reserves, hydropower, etc. Natural resources play not only a passive role as a source of raw materials and energy. Due to its special physicochemical and biological properties, land is an active resource that provides the possibility of a multiple increase in the value of products compared to the amount of costs. An example is an ear that grows from a single grain. In other words, land is one of the important sources of the "net product", that is, what remains after the reimbursement of the costs incurred.

Labor potential generally characterizes the possibility of participation of a person, employees of the enterprise, the population of the country in the production and exchange of goods. In determining these possibilities, last quarter 20th century the term "labour force" was commonly used. In particular, K. Marx will call the labor force (Arbeitskraft) the object of purchase and sale in the labor markets [Marx. S. 178]. Modern authors also use this term [Erenberg. S. 32]. Most often, it denotes the potential of workers: their number, knowledge and skills.

From the 70s. 20th century under the influence of the publications of the Nobel laureate G. Becker, the term "human capital" began to be widely used. It characterizes the components of a person's potential that can become a source of income for household, enterprises and countries. Such components can be the physical and creative abilities of a person, his knowledge, skills, activity. It is easy to see that the term "human capital" is wider than the term "labor force", although it does not contain anything fundamentally new, since the components of the labor force (knowledge and skills) are sources of income. In practice, the concept of "human capital" is used to assess the profitability of investments in education and advanced training. Many authors wrote about this before Becker, including Smith and Marshall.

AT modern production all greater value acquire ethical aspects of human activity, which are due to such personality characteristics as morality, conscientiousness, attitude towards others, the ability to

work in a team. In relation to these qualities, the term "human capital" is not very suitable, since it is difficult to single out the corresponding income.

Concluding the review of terminology on labor resources, we note that in the literature of the United States and England, along with the term "human capital", there is also the term " human resources» (Human Resource). This term is used in the field of knowledge, which in the USA and England is called Human Resource Management, and in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - personnel management (Personal management). Analyzing these terms, K. Scholz, one of the largest specialists in Germany on labor problems, gives a table of changes in terminology, from which it follows that in the German-language literature the term “Personalrnanagement” has replaced “Personalverwaltung” (“personnel management”) and “Personalwirtschaft” ( "Personnel Economics"), and in the English literature the term "Human Resource Management" has replaced the term "Personnel Management".

The considered examples show that scientific terminology cannot but take into account the traditions of the country and the norms of its language. There are grounds to believe that in Russian a person's capabilities in production activities are most adequately expressed by the term "labor potential".