What do you mean by span of control?
The concept of “span of control,” also known as management ratio, refers to the number of subordinates controlled directly by a superior. It arose from the assumption that managers have finite amounts of time, energy, and attention to devote to their jobs.
What is span of control with example?
Span of Control can be defined as the total number of direct subordinates that a manager can control or manage. For example, a manager can manage 4-6 subordinates when the nature of work is complex, whereas, the number can go up to 15-20 subordinates for repetitive or fixed work.
What is span of control and its types?
Span of management is of two types; Wider span of management and Narrow span of management. Wider span of management leads to flat organization whereas narrow span of management result in tall organization structure. Narrow spans lead to many levels in the organization and thus required a larger number of managers.
What is span of control and its importance?
The span of control determines the level of interactions and responsibilities associated with employees and managers. The importance of span of control and its concepts are relative to productivity in the workplace by determining the number of employees that fall under each individual manager.
What are the advantages of span of control?
Advantages of a Small Span of Control
- » Easy Access to Superior: the subordinate can quickly and easily speak to their superior whenever they need.
- » Better Opportunities: for employees to get promoted.
- » Closer supervision: and greater attention to the needs of the employee from the manager.
What is the best span of control?
Optimal span of control. Three or four levels of reporting typically are sufficient for most organizations, while four to five are generally sufficient for all organizations but the largest organizations (Hattrup, 1993).
What is a good span of control?
Ideally in an organization, according to modern organizational experts is approximately 15 to 20 subordinates per supervisor or manager. Larger organizations tend to have wider spans of control than smaller organizations.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of wide span of control?
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a wide span of control (5) Advantages • Staff are empowered to make their own decisions and to carry out their own tasks without interference by managers. Less managers are required and wages are saved. Less levels of communication for decisions to pass through.
What are the features of span of control?
There are some factors which influence or bring change in the span of control and they are as mentioned below.
- The capacity of the manager.
- The capacity of subordinate or employee.
- The effectiveness of communication.
- Nature of the work to be performed.
- And the staff assistance.
What is the appropriate span of control?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of narrow span of control?
The disadvantages of a narrow span of control include the following:
- A narrow span of control may be expensive to implement depending on the number of teams in the organization.
- A narrow span of control may limit the ability of team members to exercise independence in decision-making and problem-solving processes.
What are the factors that influence span of control?
Factors Affecting Span of Control
- The Ability of Officers.
- Availability of time for supervision.
- Nature of work.
- Plans for the Enterprise.
- Ability and efficiency of subordinates.
- Techniques of control.
- Degree of decentralization.
- Service of Experts.
What factors affect span of control?
Factors affecting span of control. These are the factors affecting span of control: 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.
What are the disadvantages of span of control?
Disadvantages of a Large Span of Control. Here, we essentially need to describe the disadvantages of a flat organizational structure: Fewer Opportunities for Employees: with fewer layers within the organization there is less opportunity for employees to be promoted.
What does mean by span of control?
In simple words, span of control means the manageable number of subordinates of a superior .The bigger the number of the subordinates a manager controls, the broader is her/his span of control. In a hierarchical business organization of some time in the past [ when? ] it was not uncommon to see average spans of 1-to-4 or even less, i.e. one manager supervised four employees on average.
What is the definition of span of control?
Span of Control. The concept of “span of control,” also known as management ratio, refers to the number of subordinates controlled directly by a superior. 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 wide a span of control.
