What is Span of control: Types, Formula, Benefits & Best Practices

How do you ensure that all the tasks are being completed in an organisation? Can a single person take responsibility of overseeing each and every task? Certainly not. The process is a meticulous and tedious one that involves ensuring all the department heads and managers understand their roles and responsibilities and carry them out efficiently. Further, it is about ensuring that the managers are handling their team efficiently. The span of control also called the span of management determines the number of direct reports a manager supervises and takes responsible for. This is critical, as it impacts the dynamics, productivity, and success of the team.

What is a Span of Control?

Span of Control Meaning

Span of Control refers to the number of direct reports a manager handles, supervises, and takes responsibility for. It defines the scope of a manager’s supervision and impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation. Learning and understanding about the various aspects of the span of control can help supervisors manage their teams effectively. A well-managed span of control ensures the right balance between the direct reports that may be too many or too few impacting the effectiveness, communication, and workload distribution.

What is the Importance of Span of Control?

Why is span of control important? While it is about the reports received and overseen by a manager it’s also about how it impacts employees experience and organization success. Here’s how:

1. Effectiveness of the management

The right span of control facilitates managers to lead and manage their team effectively. By the right span of control, we mean an appropriate number of employees that a manager can handle, provide personalized attention, leading to better employee performance.

2. Efficient Communication

Communicating appropriately is what keeps a team together. The span of control decides how and what amount of information flows. By streamlining the communication channels, you can ensure the right information is passed to everyone at the time they need it.

3. Better chances for innovation

When there are lesser employees in layers of management, arriving at a decision is a lot easier and faster. This agility is important in today’s competitive business landscape. Flatter structures with wider spans of control could be great as it allows employees to take decisions and be accountable for their work.

4. Delegation of tasks

Having a large team to manage poses quite a few challenges for a manager and they often struggle to delegate tasks effectively. This leads to employee as well as manager burnout. A well define span of control allows managers to delegate tasks appropriately, empowering employees to be accountable and foster a sense of ownership.

What are the Types of Spans of Control?

Span of control can be categorized into two types- Wide spans (flatter management structure) and narrow span (taller management structure)

1. Wide Span of Control

A wide span of control is a management structure that involves a single manager supervising a large number of employees. This is a structure that flatter or smaller organizations follow, that have fewer layers as it facilitates better and faster decision making.

Some of the benefits of wide span of control are-

• Fewer management layers leading to better and faster decision making
• Since there are few supervisors, the overhead costs are reduced
• Increased autonomy for employees leading to higher employee satisfaction
• Delegation helps managers reduce their oversight on employees and give them the freedom to act accordingly

2. Narrow Span of Control

A narrow span of control is a management structure where a manager supervises direct reports coming from a smaller team. This is a setup found in larger corporations where there are many employees, but the tasks are complex and require closer supervision.

Some of the benefits of narrow span of control are-

• Personalized attention is provided to employees benefitting them to hire complex projects
• Lesser workload for managers as there are lesser employees to supervise
• Managers take a more dominant role in making decisions than employees.
• Managers can more effectively convey messages to or accommodate their aspirations.

How Do You Calculate Span of Control?

The span of control is calculated by dividing the number of employees by the number of managers which comes up as a single number that can be expressed as a ratio.

Span of Control Ratio = Total number of employees (in a specific department)/ number of managers (in that department)

For example, there are 50 employees with 5 managers

Span of control= 50/5- 10:1

This means each manager is responsible for supervising the work of 10 employees.

There is no ideal span of control ratio as the approach must be based on various factors like complexity of manager’s work, total number of employees and departments in the organization, employee competence, organizational culture, job function and industry and others.

However, there are five managerial archetypes-

• Player archetype (3-5 reports)- where managers handle complex and unique tasks that demand more experience
• Coach archetype (6-7 reports)- Managers balance individual tasks by supporting their team through proper processes
• Supervisor archetype (8-10 reports)- Overseeing standardized work with some degree of individual responsibility characterizes this archetype
• Facilitator Archetype (11-15 reports): Managers in this category handle highly standardized tasks with minimal individual contribution.
• Coordinator Archetype (15+ reports): This archetype is focused solely on managing routine and automated tasks, often found in roles like call centre management.

What Are the Challenges of Span of Control?

There are distinct challenges of span of control depend on whether its wide span or narrow span of control.

Challenges faced in wide span of control include-

• Managers fail to provide personalized attention as there are many employees
• With many subordinates to oversee, managers fail to maintain productivity efficiency.
• It is difficult to control all the subordinates. Bad decisions by employees can stress managers out.
• Employees get lesser opportunities to learn under the manager
• Ensuring proper information flow across the team can be challenging

Challenges faced in narrow span of control include-

• More layers of management delay the approval process
• More number of managers result in increased overhead expenses
• The hint of micromanagement can stifle creativity and innovation resulting in lower employee morale
• While the communication quality is better, it takes a lot of time to get it through all the management layers.

What Factors Affect Span of Control?

Some of the key factors that influence span of control in an organization-

1. Nature of Work

The nature of tasks performed by employees plays a huge role in deciding the type of span of control. For example, if the tasks are repetitive and simpler, then a wider span of control can be implemented, whereas specialized tasks require more supervision meaning a narrow span is necessary.

2. Manager ability

The capability of a manager is crucial. Experienced managers with great leadership skills, decision making and communication skills can supervise a large number of employees effectively. Less experienced managers may require a narrower span.

3. Employee abilities

The competence and skills and experience of employees also matter in span of control. Employees capable of being accountable can be under a wider span of control, whereas less experienced employees may need support.

4. Time available to supervise

Managers at higher levels often have less time for direct supervision due to their broader responsibilities. As a result, the span of control may need to be narrower at these levels to ensure effective oversight.

5. Decentralization

When the decision making is decentralized it allows managers to supervise more employees. When executives make decisions, a narrower span may be required.

6. Structure of the organization

The size, strength and structure of the organization impacts span of control. Bigger organization go for a narrow span of control as the complexity is more, while smaller organizations can implement a wider span.

7. Job function and industry

Depending on the nature and job functions of the industry, span of control can be decided. For example, if it’s a manufacturing industry with labour intensive roles, wider span of control is ok but for knowledge-based roles a narrower span may be needed.

What Are Best Practices for Managing Span of Control?

Some of the best ways to manage span of control are-

1. Assessment of workload

Make sure to keep an eye out on the manager’s workload as well as how the employees are performing to figure out areas where the span of control is too wide or narrow

2. Delegate effectively

Tasks and responsibilities must be delegated properly in order to ensure the team members perform effectively. This autonomy helps relieves managers of certain tasks too.

3. Communicate better

Implement good communication channels and offer tools to team members to collaborate and co-ordinate effectively. This helps managers keep track of their work and progress made.

4. Offer training

Leadership and management training is an absolute must if you want the span of control to work as you hoped.

5. Revise team structure

Restructure the teams if required in order to ease up on the managers and help them lead better. This could be creating specialized roles or putting team member of one department to another.

6. Utilize technology

Project management tools to streamline processes and reduce workload on managers.

Conclusion

Achieving a high level of organizational effectiveness is essential to any organization’s thriving ability. One of the ways organizations can achieve this is by implementing an effective span of the control system. A well-designed span of control system helps organizations achieve a high level of organizational effectiveness. This ensures that managers have the correct number of direct reports. But even to do so, companies must understand what goes into an optimal span of control structure. If you are looking for advice on the same, then Alp Consulting definitely has the right things that can help your organization and HR team go about implementing it thanks to our decades of experience in the field.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is span of control?

The definition of Span of Control is number of direct reports a manager handles, supervises, and takes responsibility for. It defines the scope of a manager’s supervision and impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation.

2. What are the types of span of control?

Span of control can be categorized into two types- Wide spans (flatter management structure) and narrow span (taller management structure). The structure to be implemented is decided based on the nature, size, and many other factors of an organization.

3. How do you calculate span of control?

The span of control is calculated by dividing the number of employees by the number of managers which comes up as a single number that can be expressed as a ratio.

4. What is the ideal span of control?

A healthy span of control balances managerial effectiveness and employee needs. Typically, 3-7 direct reports are ideal for complex tasks requiring close supervision, while 8-15 direct reports are suitable for routine tasks where employees can work independently.

5. What are the disadvantages of a narrow span of control?

A narrow span of control is associated with disadvantages like slower communication, higher overhead costs, more bureaucracy for the organization.

6. How can technology help manage span of control?

Technology can help in managing span of control by enabling better communication, automating tasks, and providing real-time data for informed decision-making. This can lead to more efficient management, increased employee engagement, and ultimately, a better organization.