Span of management and the factors influencing the span of control (short note)

Span of management

The span of management, or span of control, is the number of subordinates whom a superior can manage effectively, and it decides how many levels of management the structure will have. As a principle of organising, it says that the span must be limited, because a manager's physical and mental capacities are limited. The classical writers suggested fixed figures, namely six subordinates at the top and twenty at the bottom; the more recent view is that a management situation has too many variables for any single number to hold, so the right span depends on the factors that affect how hard and how time-consuming managing is.

Wide and narrow spans

Because of this limit, levels of organisation come into being: a wide span goes with few levels, and a narrow span produces many levels. A call-centre supervisor in Gurugram whose agents handle standard queries can oversee a large team, while the head of a hospital's cardiac surgery unit can closely guide only a few doctors.

Factors influencing the span of control

Apart from personal qualities such as quick understanding and the ability to command loyalty, the key is how far the manager can cut down the time spent with subordinates. The following factors decide this.

1. Training of subordinates. Well-trained subordinates need fewer and shorter contacts with the manager, so the span can be wide.
2. Nature of the work. Simple tasks allow a wider span than complex ones.
3. Rate of change. The slower an enterprise changes, the broader the span it can have; rapid change calls for a narrow span.
4. Clarity of plans. Little of a supervisor's time is needed when plans are well defined and workable, adequate authority has been delegated to carry them out, and subordinates understand what is expected of them; where plans cannot be drawn accurately and subordinates must do much of their own planning, they need more guidance.
5. Personal contact needed. The more face-to-face meetings the work requires, the narrower the span.
6. Objective standards. If performance can be compared against standards that need no subjective judgment, the manager's job becomes easier and many time-consuming contacts are avoided.
7. Competence of the manager. A competent, trained manager can supervise more people than one without these attributes.
8. Communication techniques. If every instruction has to be given in person the manager can supervise only a few, whereas the ability to communicate plans clearly and concisely widens the span.
9. Clarity of delegation. A manager who delegates a well-defined task with enough authority to do it can get it done with little demand on his or her time; an unclear task or too little authority forces the manager to spend a great deal of time guiding the subordinate.

Conclusion

Every managerial position has a limit to the number of people its holder can manage, but the exact number varies with these underlying factors and with the time they demand of the manager.