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Factors Affecting Span of Control

The span of control, which refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor manages, can be affected by several factors: 1) Geographical location - If branches are dispersed, the span is smaller; 2) Capability of workers - Highly capable workers who need little oversight allow for a wider span; 3) Similarity of tasks - If subordinates perform similar tasks, the span can be wider as the manager can supervise all at once. The supervisor's capabilities must also be considered.

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2K views1 page

Factors Affecting Span of Control

The span of control, which refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor manages, can be affected by several factors: 1) Geographical location - If branches are dispersed, the span is smaller; 2) Capability of workers - Highly capable workers who need little oversight allow for a wider span; 3) Similarity of tasks - If subordinates perform similar tasks, the span can be wider as the manager can supervise all at once. The supervisor's capabilities must also be considered.

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safrancoool
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Factors affecting span of control

These are the factors affecting span of control:

1. Geographical Location, 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 on control will
be smaller.
2. Capability of workers, if workers are highly capable, and do not require much
supervision and can be left on their own, eg: Theory Y type of people, need not be
supervised much as they are motivated and take initiative to work,as such the span of
control will be wider.
3. Similarity of task, if the task that the subordinates are performing are similar, then the
span of control can be wider, as the manager can supervise them all at the same time.
However, of course the capability of the supervisor has to also be taken into
consideration.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/span-of-control#ixzz1FBmgK392


Span of control means the number of the subordinates which a supervisor has. For example, if a
manager directly controls 10 employees in the organization then it is his span of control. With the
expansion of the business the span of the supervisors increases because the number of employees
increases. There are two kinds of organizational structures including flat and vertical organizational
structure. In both of the structures there is a different span of control. A company incurs less cost if the
span of control of supervisors increases because the company will have to pay the benefit to a less
number of supervisor.

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