Low spans of control can lead to a higher number of organizational layers. Traditionally, span of control is defined and measured as the number of direct subordinates a manager supervises. The concept span of control has been interpreted so widely. The average span of control in most state and local agencies actually ranged from 5 with most agencies close to 6 or 7. Span of control is indicative of the quality of leadership. The recommended span of control ranged from 612 or more. In january of 1998, i posted a comment about the span of control and the formulas of v. The concept of span of control was developed in the united kingdom in 1922 by sir ian hamilton. What is span of control and organizational structure. Managers with larger spans of control managed at arms length, enforced standards and rules, and had less positive in. Effectiveness of increasing span of control on operational. Average span of control soc total employees 1total supervisors.
Span of control is the term now used more commonly in business management, particularly human resource management. Although a wide span of control can save money, budget developers must be careful about cutting costs when it comes to management. There may not be guidelines or standardized processes in place. Span of control 9 span of control refers to the number of employees a supervisor oversees expressed as a ratio e.
The uses of the concept, span of control, have become so varied over the past years that in its present form it is no longer useful as a means of communicating information between scholars. A number of direct, group and cross relation ships exits between a manager and his subordinates. A wide span of control can have positive or negative effects, or a mix of both, depending on how the business is. This work was supported by a grant from the national science foundation, sociology section, which is gratefully acknowledged. Page 2 of 4 assignment and monitoring of work, and performance management for at least one other individual within their work unit. What does it mean for a manager to have a wide span of control. In january of 1998, i had occasion to post to an hr list a comment about span of control and the formulas of v.
While there are pros and cons with both tall and flat structures, a companys structure must be designed to suit the business the customer and markets and in a way that fits with the workforces capability. It is therefore very important for span of control and scope of control to be in harmony with each other. Full report provides in detail the methods, findings and tools used for spans 2015. It is very important to understand span of control and organizational structure when describing an organization. Within an organization, taller organizational structures are relatively more expensive than flatter and wider organizational structures due to the increased number of managers required. Graicunas to a human resources hr discussion list on the internet.
Nsw schools physical activity and nutrition survey spans. Exhibit 4 shows an example of how spans of control and organizational layers interact. A manager with a wide span of control supervises many employees, while one with a narrow span supervises just a few. Span of control refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has. The head of the organization has a higher span of control in scenario 1 1. Organizations size and span of control practical management. Your definition of span of control is wrong and how to. Correcting spans without addressing the underlying sources of inefficiency is, at a minimum, a shortterm fix. When implemented successfully, delayering and managing span of control can lead to better collaboration, productivity, and. Greater spans of control for managers are associated with decreased satisfaction and performance.
Span of control span of control industry standard fhwa manual on uniform traffic control devices for streets and highwaysc control bridge span span book pdf the span book life span eng 2 span 065279 introdation bridge span development across the life span 8th ed. It is also a wellknown fact that a manager with a large span of control has a lot of people under him. Throughout the 20th century, many organizations chased the notion of finding and using one ideal universal span of control socthe. An executive having four subordinates under him is required to deal with. Span of control span of control is typically defined as the number of people who report to a manager or supervisor1,6 or the number of workers that a supervisor can effectively manage. Pdf for both practitioners and researchers, span of control plays an important role in defining and understanding the role of the ceo. The span of control is the number of persons directly reporting to a manager. Span of control, a management and leadership theory toolshero. History and current trends then confirm or deny the theories. This span of control creates a taller structure which leads to having many levels of management. Span of control determines the structure of an organization, a narrow span of control results in hierarchal organization while broad span of control leads to flat structure. In the hierarchical business organization of some time in the past. After reading this article you will learn about the principles and factors affecting the span of control. The paper uses the empirical approach to propose a method of defining optimal span of control for an enterprise, and leads to a conclusion, that efficiency of organizational function performance within company management can be estimated with the use of span of control criteria.
Jan 25, 2012 advantages and disadvantages of these two span of management types should be carefully examined in terms of tangible as well as intangible factors. Span of control is very simply defined as the number of subordinates a manager within an organization has reporting to him or her. Flat organizations have a wide span of control and tall organizations have a narrow span of control. The paper uses the empirical approach to propose a method of defining optimal span of control for an enterprise, and leads to a conclusion, that efficiency of organizational function performance within company management can be estimated. The smaller a managers span of control, the less subordinates he can lead. Spans and layers for the modern organization download the pdf effectively and sustainably delayering an organization some organizations use delayering as a quick span of control management tool to address common issues such as uncompetitive operational costs and slow organizational responsiveness. A playercoach has a significant level of individual responsibility.
Pdf the span of control expresses how many subordinates correspond to one manager, while determined by many factors and unable to be expanded. The span of control refers to number of employees that directly report to a single manager. Pdf span of control in teamwork and organization structure. Theory provides a framework to understand decentralized battle and the impacts of varying spans of control. In this context, the classical representation of span of control is that of an inverted. Or keep the same number of members but increase spans of control. Benchmarking management layers and spans of control research sponsorship opportunity project overview finding the most efficient and effective organizational structure is a common business challenge. Span of control australian public service commission. Narrow spans lead to many levels in the organization and thus required a larger number of managers. The major external factors which influence span of control include. In this article, an attempt has been made to compare two methods of determining potential span of control, that is, the stieglitz method and the graicunas method. Span of control 5 things every leader should know forbes.
When the span of control is narrow, the manager has only a few workers to supervise. They spend more time internally, specifically in pre. Defining optimal span of control for an enterprise. For a downloadable, pdf version of this paper, click here. It will explore the relationship between these aspects of organizational structure and various business and human capital performance outcomes. For both emergency services and the private sector. What is the ideal number of direct reports for a manager. Apr, 2018 the difference between a narrow or wide span of control may be determined by a managers rank. Read on to learn what it is and how it impacts a companys results. Data are presented to demonstrate variations in spans of control as well as highlight underlying. How to identify the right spans of control for your organization. Graicunas as well as some commentary and a historical note about graicunas. The number of subordinates, over whom control is to be exercised, should be reasonable.
Since all managers manage at least one subordinate, span of control applies to managers at all levels throughout the organization. Below are the available bulk discount rates for each individual item when you purchase a certain amount. It arose from the assumption that managers have finite amounts of time, energy, and attention to. The number of direct reports and the presence of a delegate coo or cfo are strong predictors of how the top executives runs the company. Budget consultants tend to cut employees in middle management, but widening the span of control can create more problems than the cost savings is worth. The trend holds when we measure hospital size by the size of the overall. First, ceo span of control is a strategic variable that is associated with the ceos level of involvement. Span of control analysis is then conducted as a supplement to understanding the current state and proposing a future state organization that will produce cost savings. There are 525 supervisors in layer 5 4 steps below president. In our experience, bringing spans and layers back under control requires four steps. Span of control and span of attention working paper harvard. It also poses a very different challenge for the organizations leaders, while small organizations are build for innovation, large are meant for operational efficiency.
Department heads should utilize these opportunities to advance the goals of this policy. Defining the span of control stanford graduate school of. Meeting and exceeding expectations, a vice president, for instance, usually manages fewer than four people while the lowerranking assembly line supervisor might manage oversee 15. Within certain parameters, a broad span of control is the most desirable, because more narrow spans of control lead to more middle managers and thus slower communication between employees and top. Organizations size and span of control organizations size is determined by number of its employees, the largeness of its operation, and its market reach and share. Spans and layers for the modern organization download the pdf. Span of control in management has implications for work flow, communications, and opportunities for promotion in a company. At the same time, the notion of ceo span of control is also relevant in the organizational. What does it mean for a manager to have a wide span of. As an example, a manager with five direct reports has a span of control of five. Simply, span of control refers to the number of subordinates under the managers direct control.
It is the number of subordinates which are directly under their superiors. Analysis then compares and contrasts various spans of control in several military organizations relative to the established criteria. The nsw schools physical activity and nutrition survey spans 2015. This, in turn, leads to larger expenses in the form of executive remuneration. An interprofessional team measured one organizations nurse manager span of control, providing administrative assistant support and transformational leadership development to nurse managers with the largest spans of control.
Spans and layers for the modern organization deloitte us. A coach archetype has a substantial level of individual responsibility and executional support from others. The process of control also gets complicated when there are. Instead, ceos with broader spans of control invest more in a team model of interaction. Span of control, a management and leadership theory. The objective of the audit was to determine whether the citys organizational span of control was compatible with current management practices, and whether opportunities for streamlining the citys organizations are possible. As part of this, a supervisory burden analysis provides leaders with the strategic and operational context of their organizations span of control, deconstructs span of control. Hi everyone, i would like to create a horizontal bar chart for span of control. This paper argues that the span of control is a useful concept for measuring the closeness of contact between a superior and his subordinates. Effectiveness of increasing span of control on operational performance variables.
If you look closely at the management ranks of many fortune 500 corporations, youll see this unfortunate phenomenon. The main thrust of urwicks article was to counter the arguments being made against limits on the span of. Dowling the authors thank professor howard aldrich for comments on an earlier draft. This audit of the span of control of selected departments in the city and county of honolulu was selfinitiated. The difference between a narrow or wide span of control may be determined by a managers rank. Span of management types wide spans and narrow spans of. It is the fifth in a series of schoolbased surveys of nsw school students and provides valuable trend information on the weight status and associated behaviours of a representative sample of. Full name this is the employee and the corresponding column with their supervisor name.
The span of control is a perennial topic in discussions of management. In simple words, span of control means the manageable number of subordinates of a superior. How to identify the right spans of control for your. Consequently, it was decided to add 4 management positions to note the effect. Seven insights from hospital span of control benchmarks. In the standard model that makes this prediction a subordinates productivity is positively related to the ability of the subordinates manager, but there is also a cost of having a manager that. This apqc study will collect benchmarks on direct reports and management layers. Span of control span of control or span of management represents a numerical limit of sub ordinates to be supervised and controlled by a manager. Itom department abstract the following paper investigates the impact of increasing the span of control post 2009 at the. Mitigating the impact of nurse manager large spans of control. The result is often bureaucratic buildup, bottlenecked decisionmaking, and a general lack of innovation. Sir ian hamiltons concept of span of control was supported and later expanded by management experts like v.
Pdf span of control, unity of command, coordination adnan. In other cases weve seen narrow spans because an organization has been slow to invest in its systems or digital enablement, requiring manual workand human quality controlin places that could be largely automated. Two important span of management types are wider span of management and narrow span of management. One year later, positive changes were observed in employee engagement scores in all 4 areas. Graicunas fred nickols 422011 this paper presents the formulas for determining a managers span of control as set forth by v.
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