Span of Control Matters

Abstract

Prompted by manager concerns about span of control, a large, integrated health system set out to determine if span of control really mattered. Was there something to it, or was it just an excuse for poor performance? A team of middle managers studied the problem and ultimately demonstrated a strong relationship between span of control and employee engagement. Consequently, it was decided to add 4 management positions to note the effect. One year later, positive changes were observed in employee engagement scores in all 4 areas. This study suggests careful review of manager spans of control to address the untoward effects of large spans of control on employee engagement.

Work environments and staff responses to work environments in institutional long-term care

“…Perceived supervisory support and leadership effectiveness are related not only to supervisor abilities but also to span of control. Managers with wider spans of control generally have less opportunity to develop relationships with individual staff (Cathcart et al, 2004). Therefore, when examining leadership and supervision effectiveness in ILTC, consideration should be given to the number of persons who report to each supervisor to allow for the development of effective employeesupervisor relationships (Simons, 2005;Morash, Brintnell, & Rodger, 2005).…”

Barriers and Strategies to Apply Infection Control Standards as Perceived by Nurses (A qualitative study)

“…(24), and one strategy for connecting with per-diem and part-time nurses includes engaging them immediately when they begin their daynight at the facility. For instance, per-diem and part-time staff may be provided with infection control standard updates, inservices, and trainings (25 ) min prior to the start of their shift.…”

Span of control in supervision of rail track work

“…In recent years however there has been something of a resurgence of interest in the concept in specific domains such as healthcare, possibly because these are areas where formerly procedure-based work has given way to far more diverse types of activity as healthcare technology has developed, professions like nursing have become more recognised as diverse and skilled and managerial restructuring has also placed pressures on pre-existing structures (e.g., Cathcart, et al, 2004;Doran et al, 2004;McCutcheon et al, 2009;Meyer, 2008;New, 2009;Wong et al, 2009) The modern way to view Span of control is therefore not in terms of trying to design the 'perfect organisation' once and for all, but in using the concept to understand under which circumstances work is easier and harder to manage and to answer questions concerning the nature of a managerial role, what kinds of support are required, how many lines of report a manager can handle and how much time a manager can spend on supervision (Meyer, 2008). It may be the case for example that a team that can be easily managed in normal circumstances may become far more challenging to oversee when moved to a different site, given different tasks to do or perhaps working under unusual forms of disruption.…”