Span of control meaning pdf

Pdf for both practitioners and researchers, span of control plays an. With the wider span, there will be less hierarchical levels, and thus, the organizational structure would be flatter. Hypotheses were tested at a significance level of p. The number of people who report to one manager in a hierarchy the more people under the control of one manager the wider the span of control less means a narrower span of control example below shows a span of control of 4 for the marketing manager marketing manager market. The management dictionary covers over 7000 business concepts from 6 categories. This concept affects organization design in a variety of ways, including speed of communication flow, employee motivation, reporting relationships, and administrative overhead. It means how effectively a superior can effectively supervise. Wide span of control means a manager can supervise and control effectively a large number of persons at a time. It is an organizational theory term that refers to how relationships are structured between leaders and subordinates in organizations. The principle of span of control in public administration is related to the concept of span of attention described in psychology by v graicunus, the french management consultant. Span of control refers to the number of subordinates that can be managed effectively and efficiently by supervisors or managers in an organization. Information and translations of span of control in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Span of control can be used as an optimization criteria for estimating the number of employees as well as the amount of hierarchical levels. 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.

Within an organization, taller organizational structures are relatively more expensive than flatter and wider organizational structures due to the increased number of managers required. To illustrate, if organisations a and b, both have 256 workers and the span of control for each managerial position is 2 for company a and 4 for company b, there will be 9 levels in company a requiring 128 supervisors at the lowest level, 64 at the next. Wide span of control means a single manager or supervisor oversees a large number of subordinates. Each type has its inherent advantages and disadvantages. 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. How to identify the right spans of control for your. Since management represents the activities that do not directly result in productivity, they are rather a overhead, span of control determines the additional. First, ceo span of control is a strategic variable that is associated with the ceos level of involvement. Span of control is very simply defined as the number of subordinates a manager within an organization has reporting to him or her. Span of control and span of attention working paper harvard. A large span of control leads to a flatter organisational structure, which results in lower costs.

The span of control refers to number of employees that directly report to a single manager. Pdf span of control and span of activity researchgate. Span of control means that a manager can properly control only a limited number of subordinates, after a certain number is exceeded, communication of commands grows increasingly garbed and control. The two diagrams below illustrate two different spans of control. Span of control can be defined as the total number of direct subordinates that a manager can control or manage. First, of course, is the tendency of people to want to report directly to the boss, whomever that might be. Read this article to learn about the definition and evaluation of span of control in administration.

Span of control is simply the number of staff that report to a manager. 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. Finally, we complemented the time use data with information from manual. This paper argues that the span of control is a useful concept for measuring the closeness of contact between a superior and his subordinates. Almost two years later, that posting led to a request for those formulas. In january of 1998, i had occasion to post to an hr list a comment about span of control and the formulas of v. Span of control simply refers to the number of employees that a manager can supervise effectively at any given time without compromising his or her own performance, or that of the employees he or she manages hindle, 2008. Hello learners, this video consists of the full description of span of control also known as span of management.

The concept of span of control is an important concept in business. A span of control of 7 would be considered to be quite wide. Number of employees there are no specific numbers that define a wide or narrow span of control, as these can be relative to the size of the organization. The topdown assignment of managerial span of control, based on external comparisons, misses the specificity critical to designing something that is right for each companys context and strategy. Let us define the principle in the words of nicholas henry.

The difference between a narrow or wide span of control may be determined by a managers rank. Pdf the span of control expresses how many subordinates correspond to one. The span of management is related to the horizontal levels of the organization structure. For a downloadable, pdf version of this paper, click here. Pdf span of control, unity of command, coordination adnan. These three limitations on the capacity of human beings. Unter einer leitungsspanne oder fuhrungsspanne englisch span of control oder. The span of control is the number of subordinates for whom a manager is directly responsible. The span of control is the number of employees a manager can supervise as effectively as possible. Traditionally, span of control is defined and measured as the number of direct subordinates a manager supervises. As an example, a manager with five direct reports has a span of control of five. Simon 1 945, urwick 1 956, and porter and lawler 1 965 used equally simple definitions. It doesnt take into account how each department and team should perform their work to accomplish their collective performance and health goals.

This gives rise to a flat organizational structure. Span of control how is span of control abbreviated. This setting allows us to look directly at the allocation of ceo time, and its relationship with. A wide span of control exists when a person oversees many subordinates. Span of control, a management and leadership theory. Typically, it is either narrow or wide resulting in a flatter or more hierarchical organizational structure. Defining optimal span of control for an enterprise. Some companies also have an ideal span of control, which is the number of reports they feel a. Also, due to this kind of span of control, number of managers are increases and hence the overall costing of the company increases. Depending upon the complexity of organisational activities and relationships amongst superiors and subordinates, it becomes important the superiors manage an optimum number of subordinates that result in optimum organisational output. Most organizations are structured on the premise that there are practical limitations to the number of people one manager can effectively supervise without becoming overloaded or losing sight of what the subordinates are doing. What does it mean for a manager to have a wide span of.

It is a chain of command notion where the number of subordinates are properly identified to understand a managers reach. Spans literary meaning says, it is the distance between the tip of a thumb and small finger when palm of hand is fully stretched out. Span of control definition, meaning, factors, examples. The extent or measure of space between two points or extremities, as of a bridge or roof. Span of control is the term now used more commonly in business management, particularly human resource management. 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. Wide span according to wide span, the manager supervises and control effectively a large group of persons at one time. The number of direct reports and the presence of a delegate coo or cfo are strong predictors of how the top executives runs the. Span of control or span of management is a dimension of organizational design measured by the number of subordinates that report directly to a given manager.

The number of subordinates that a manager or supervisor can directly control. The number of subordinates managed by a manager varies depending on the complexity of the work. Browse the definition and meaning of more terms similar to span of control. A span of control is a concept that describes the number of people that are managed by someone. The concept of span of control, also known as management ratio, refers to the number of subordinates controlled directly by a superior. Span of control definition in the cambridge english.

Pdf span of control in teamwork and organization structure. 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. Span of control depends highly on the organizational structure of the business. What is span of control and organizational structure. So span of control as we see is an individual characteristic depending upon type of organizational structure as well as upon individual features of a certain company. A structure where span of control for each managerial position is 4 appears as follows. There is an inverse relation between the span of control and the number of levels in hierarchy in an organization, i. All the subordinates cannot be managed by one superior. Since all managers manage at least one subordinate, span of control applies to managers at all levels throughout the organization. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a narrow span. Span of control description the full technique overview is available for free. However, in terms of management and administration, it means the maximum extend or the number of people that can be reached by. In simple words, span of control means the manageable number of subordinates of a superior. Defining the span of control stanford graduate school of.

Traditionally, span of control is defined and measured as the number of. It refers to how many workers a manager is supervising. Graicunas and urwick both noted the existence of pressures to increase the span of control. Span of control in hindi span of management youtube. Span of control financial definition of span of control. Span of control is the number of peoplesubordinates that can be effectively managed by one manager. A wide span of control can have positive or negative effects, or a mix of both, depending on how the business is structured and how the manager handles supervisory duties. Span of control is defined as the number of subordinates who report to an individual supervisor. Whereas, with the narrow span, the hierarchical levels increases, hence the. Span of control refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has.

The term span of control is made of two words, viz. It is because shorter span of control leads to rise. Human resources hr span of control, or management span, measures the average number of employees that report directly to each individual hr manager, or director. Shiwani bansal, in biyani groups of colleges, department of social science, explains the meaning of span of control.

A highly structured hierarchical organization will typically have a. The span of control is a perennial topic in discussions of management. The addition of new hierarchical layers makes the organisational structure steeper. A small span of control creates a steeper organisational. Traditionally, span of control is defined and measured as the number of direct. Simply, span of control refers to the number of subordinates under the managers direct control. Span of control meaning in the cambridge english dictionary.