Meaning the principle of span of control means the number of subordinates or the units of work that. Ask 5 people for their opinions on optimizing span of control and youll likely receive 5 different opinions. Graicunas fred nickols 422011 this paper presents the formulas for determining a managers span of control as set forth by v. Span of control definition, meaning, factors, examples. A manager with a wide span of control supervises many employees, while one with a narrow span supervises just a few. Span of control is a term that describes the number of subordinate workers organizational units under a single manager. A wide span of control can have positive or negative effects, or a mix of both, depending on how the business is. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a narrow span of control.
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. Organization delayering do you have the agility to compete. In this paper, we combine organizational chart information for a. 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. Pdf outsourcing, supplier relations, and the external span. Outsourcing, supplier relations, and the external span of control. A wide span of control can have positive or negative effects, or a. Organization structures can be described as wide with larger span of control or narrow with smaller span of control. Span of control, also known as span of management, refers. Jan 20, 2015 check your span of control and prepare for a transition if the span is way off where it should be.
Span of control matters mount carmel college of nursing. The principle of span of control states that the number of. Span of control meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. As each managers span of control is broadened, the number of required layers of management is reduced and each employee is less closely supervised. It is a chain of command notion where the number of subordinates are properly identified to understand a managers reach. Hence, the most widely accepted interpretation of unity of command is the one given above.
Effectiveness of increasing span of control on operational. 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. This is emphasized repeatedly in the literature and in particular by jurisdictions that that have visited or revisited the question the concept of an ideal range often stated as 57, or 68 originates in the pioneering span of control research that took. Wide span of control narrow span of control means a single manager or supervisor oversees few members.
It appears that the application of those two approaches leads to similar ramifications. The term span of control is popularly used in business management and human resource management. Organizations size and span of control practical management. In order to design zeolite catalysts, the parameters controlling the other. 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 definitions general nursing departments that include any inpatient, patientfacing nurses and their managers, and those that largely perform. The principle of span of control states that, the number of subordinate positions directly reporting to a superior position should be that number which is considered as optimum and which balances. It also poses a very different challenge for the organizations leaders, while small organizations are build for. 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.
It is a particularly important concept for small business. A managers span of control refers to how many employees that manager supervises. Span of control theory there is no standard for span of control. Haimann and scott defined span of control as the number of subordinates who can be effectively supervised and managed. Research shows that the relationship between a contact center agent and his or her supervisor is a crucial component of agent satisfaction. The span of control is the number of persons directly reporting to a manager. The concept of span of control, also known as management ratio, refers to the number of subordinates controlled directly by a superior. Although the ideal span of control will vary from company to company, one can see sometimes dramatic results by increasing the span of control. 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. 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. Hr advancement center, span of control benchmarking initiative, 2014.
Geographical dispersion, if the branches of a business are widely dispersed, then the manager will find it difficult to supervise each of them, as such the span of control will be smaller. It is a particularly important concept for small business owners to understand because small businesses often get into trouble when the founder ends up with too. Wider span of management and narrow span of management. Defining optimal span of control for an enterprise nailya bagautdinovaa, asya validovab a,bkazan federal university, kremlyovskaya st.
When the span of control is narrow, the manager has only a few workers to supervise. These three limitations on the capacity of human beings. In a wider span of control, a manager has many subordinates who report to him. It refers to how many workers a manager is supervising. The concept of span of control is an important concept in business. A wall street journal study found that the average span of control in the corporate sector was one to 11 for service companies and. While we are addressing span of control, lets also broaden our understanding to see it in the context of the organizational structure levels of hierarchy. As shown in figure 1, keeping the organization layers to five while increasing the span of control from five to eight means management can support six times the number of people, enabling managers.
Pdf on, fred nickols and others published the span of control and the formulas of v. Interviews were conducted with supervisors and their employees in a. Larger could be a sign of an acquired organization that has not been fully integrated. This work was supported by a grant from the national science foundation, sociology section, which is gratefully acknowledged. Purchasing must have legimate authority to make decision. The determination of span of control 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. This paper argues that the span of control is a useful concept for measuring the closeness of contact between a superior and his subordinates. European tendency to increase the life expectancy and ageing of the. The difference between a narrow or wide span of control may be determined by a managers rank. Organization structures can be described as wide with larger span of. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a narrow span of. These well meaning opinions will often cite a few different rules of thumb on. Span of control refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has. Bell abstract this investigation explores three determinants of span of control.
Longenecker simply defined span of control as the number of immediate subordinates reporting to a given manager. 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. The basic concepts and principles of unity of command and the. Hi everyone, i would like to create a horizontal bar chart for span of control. Meaning the principle of span of control means the number of subordinates or the units of work that an officer can personally direct, control, and supervise. Aug 29, 2014 other names of span of management span of control span of supervise span of responsibility 4. Span of control is the range or extant of effective control and supervision of the work done by the subordinates. In order to understand how people use our site generally, and to create more valuable. Purchasing span of controlnew supply chain industries. Bulgaria and almost six times higher than in italy and spain and almost 10 times. Dowling the authors thank professor howard aldrich for comments on an earlier draft. A quickexample, lets say the ceo has 3 direct reports and each of them have 3 direct reports. It is very important to understand span of control and organizational structure when describing an organization. A span of control is a concept that describes the number of people that are managed by someone.
Span of control final report page 3 1 executive summary during the fy 2014 budget process, the portland city council identified a span of control analysis as a potential source for achieving savings and organizational efficiencies, and adopted a budget note directing the city to conduct a preliminary span of control assessment. What is span of control and organizational structure. Span of management, also known as span of control, refers to the number of people a manager directly manages. The basic concepts and principles of unity of command and. The answer is generally no a suitable span of control will depend upon a number of factors. The concept of external span of control, defined as a firms overall capability to manage multiple and varying relations. The ceo would have 3 direct reports and 12 indirect reports total amount of people under him. Span of control is the term now used more commonly in business management, particularly human resource management. Simply, span of control refers to the number of subordinates under the managers direct control. Narrow span of control is more expensive as compared to wide span of control as there is more number of managers and therefore there are greater communication problems between various levels of management. Defining optimal span of control for an enterprise. Check your span of control and prepare for a transition if the span is way off where it should be.
Oliver wyman recently examined the span of control of 47 european financial services cfos. This span of control creates a taller structure which leads to having many levels of management. Effectiveness of increasing span of control on operational performance variables. We characterised them by their areas of direct and indirect responsibility in five strategically important areas. Span of control is estabilsed through senior management. Before determining the span of control that makes sense for the managers within your organization, its a good idea to consider the options. According to the nnn concept, the acid strength of a protonic site depends on the. As an example, a manager with five direct reports has a span of control of five. Sometimes there are other reasons why a span of control is either larger or smaller than it should be. Defining the span of control stanford graduate school of. Span of control 5 things every leader should know forbes. Nov 05, 2012 ask 5 people for their opinions on optimizing span of control and youll likely receive 5 different opinions. Span of management directly affects the number of levels in the organization.
Because this term is related to the management and controlling of employees, the meaning of the word span of control is the total number of subordinates that a manager or supervisor can manage. What does it mean for a manager to have a wide span of control. Determination of span of control is one of the results of organizing and it is defacto manifestation of formal organizational structure. Organizations and teams can possess either a wide or a narrow span of control, and each has its advantages and drawbacks. Span of control and span of attention oriana bandiera, andrea prat, raffaella sadun and julie wulf december 19, 20 abstract using novel data on ceo time use, we document the relationship between the size and composition of the executive team and the attention of the ceo. Graicunas thought the theoretical evidence in favor of limiting the span of. First, ceo span of control is a strategic variable that is associated with the ceos level of involvement. The concept span of control has been interpreted so widely. Graicunas as well as some commentary and a historical note about graicunas.
For both practitioners and researchers, span of control plays an important role in defining and understanding the role of the ceo. Oct 12, 2019 before determining the span of control that makes sense for the managers within your organization, its a good idea to consider the options. Our methodology is described in detail in the appendix. In the hierarchical business organization of some time in the past it was not uncommon to see average spans of 1 to 4 or even less. This audit of the span of control of selected departments in the city and county of honolulu was selfinitiated. Itom department abstract the following paper investigates the impact of increasing the span of control post 2009 at the. In a narrow span of control, a manger has fewer subordinates under him. Full name this is the employee and the corresponding column with their supervisor name.
I am trying to calculate the span of control of my organization and have run into a bit of trouble. Presents the span of control formulas created by v a graicunas. Span of management or span of control management study hq. Span of management types wide spans and narrow spans of. Apr, 2018 the difference between a narrow or wide span of control may be determined by a managers rank. If being a line manager requires a great deal of close supervision, then a narrower span might be appropriate.