Span Of Management

Span of management/ span of control

Span of management means the number of people managed efficiently by a single officer in an organization. This is also called span of management, span of authority, span of supervision, span of authority, span of responsibility or levels of organization. This principle is based on the principle of relationship.

          Span of control refers to the maximum numbers effectively supervised by a single individual. The number of members may be increased or decreased according to the nature of work done by the subordinate or the ability of the supervision. In the administration area, under one executive, nearly four of five subordinates may work. The span of control enables the smooth functioning of the organization.

          The term ‘span’ literally means the space the between two supports of a structure, e.g. the space between two pillars of a bridge. The space between two pillars should be neither too large nor to small. If it is too large, the bridge may collapse and if is too small, it will enhance its cost. When this word is applied to management, it refers to the number of subordinates a manager or a supervisor can supervise, manage or control effectively and effectively.

          Therefore, span of supervision refer to the optimum number of subordinates that a manager or supervisor can manage or control effectively.

          Accordingly to Mr.Spriegal “ Span of control means the number of people reporting directly to an authority. The principle of span of control impulse that no single executive should have more people looking to him for guidance and leadership than he can reasonably be exacted to serve.’’  

          An organization is characterized by the presence of a number of levels and departments. But more the levels are created more will be the administrative cost due to additional staff required and more will be the difficulty to be encountered in communication and controlling.

          This is basically the problem of deciding the number of subordinates to report directly to each manager. According to this principle there is a limit of the number of subordinates that each managers can effectively supervise.

Basically there are two types of span of management –

1.     Narrow span of management – It leads to many level in heresy system in organization situation. Narrow span also effect employees moral adversely.

2.     Wide span of management – Wide spans of management leads to flat organization in which manager have a developing skill and experience of knowledge.