span of control

the number of people a manager has formal AUTHORITY over and is responsible for. Most ORGANIZATIONS are structured on the premise that there are practical limitations to the number of people one manager can effectively supervise without becoming overloaded or losing sight of what the subordinates are doing. CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT THEORY held that the optimum span of control was around six people. It is now generally believed that the effective width of the span is to some extent determined by the distribution of decision-making. Where this is decentralized a wider span is feasible. The span of control is often inversely related to the number of levels in the HIERARCHY of an ORGANIZATION. The more levels, the smaller the span of control, and vice versa.

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References in periodicals archive

A practical reason for the transition to mission command of sustainment operations during Phase I is span of control, as headquarters generally do not have the capability to provide mission command for more than six subordinate units.

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Span of control guidelines and limits should be defined.

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"The steady, continuous pressure being applied by ground forces and coalition airstrikes is degrading Daesh and clearly inhibiting their operational freedom, span of control, military capacity and fighter morale," said Marotto.

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Even modest improvement in adherence, attendance, attrition, supervisor span of control, and/or utilization can deliver a return 10 times that of a CCPM investment through associated increases in top and/or bottom line growth."

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The average span of control was 60.8 (SD=39.2) full-time equivalents (FTEs) across 1.7 units (SD=1.0).

Nurse manager job satisfaction and intent to leave

Generally, as the counterinsurgent's span of control over the territory and population in Afghanistan declines over time, the ability of the insurgency to credibly threaten and punish the population increases.

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The current structure is too narrow and too vertical to allow a reasonable span of control for today's complex military hospital.

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The mandate is to improve efficiency and effectiveness within each individual leader's span of control. Issues that fall beyond that span are elevated up the chain of command for action.

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Moosey) to work side-by-side, literally, with Commissioner Moylan and know and understand all that is under his span of control and all that is under way, planned or in long-range thinking," Mr.

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This requires the remaining managers to have a wider span of control and thus presents challenges for performance management.

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Organization structure is a multidimensional construct, which includes such components as organization size, vertical and horizontal differentiation, and administrators' span of control. Together, these dimensions of structure comprise a system of roles and relationships reflected in a hierarchical structure of authority (Bidwell 1967, 163-181; Simon 1976, 102-103; Scott 1961; Keiser, Wilkin & Holland, 2002).

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C2 capabilities and span of control are two other considerations important for determining the proper balance between centralized control and decentralized execution.

Airmen and mission command