What is Span of Management?

Span of management is the number of people or subordinates that the manager can control and manage. The term ‘span of management’ is also known as ‘span of control’ and ‘span of supervision’. 
An organisation needs to maintain a balance between the number of employees within a team and the number of employees that a manager is responsible for taking care of. It relies on the type and nature of the work in the organisation. The span of control of a manager thus depends upon their subordinates, which can range from a few to a hundred. 

When an organisation understands its own span of management, they perform better, as it can create an efficient and healthy work environment for the employees and its team. It is also determined by the manager’s ability to communicate with and motivate subordinates and control their work and projects. There are different departments in an organisation, such as finance, HR, marketing, etc., and each of those departments has its team members. Handling them together might be difficult for the head of that organisation. In such a case, a span of management is necessary. If the manager can represent their subordinates well, they can manage a lot more subordinates. Managing a huge number of employees simultaneously can lead to a lack of communication between the subordinates and the manager. The wider the span of management, the easier the flow of communication, and thus decision-making is decentralized. For example, if there are too many people in the organisation, the one responsible for managing them may feel overburdened and he may find it difficult to manage the team. Similarly, if the organisation or the team is too small, the organisation may not be able to use its physical and human resources effectively. The span of management also assists the organisation to save costs as when a supervisor is efficient, he will be able to perform more productively, and it will eliminate the need for the management to hire extra personnel.