Span of control is the number of subordinates a manager is going to manage.

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A manager with a small number of subordinates directly reporting to them will have a narrow span of control.

And managers with a lot of people directly reporting to them will have a wide span of control.

Now the organization with narrow span of control will be a tall organization.

And the one with a wide span of control will be a flat organization.

There are benefits and disadvantages in both of them. In the narrow span of control, a manager can look after the employees closely. They can communicate with the employees easily.

But in broad span of controls, you can say that the employees will have a little more independence in their day to day work. And in broad span of controls, not a lot of managers are needed. Different for narrow span of control, there will be more layers in the organizational hierarchy.


Choosing the span of control is a crucial decision for any business. there has been studies to figure out the best span of control depending on the industry, but the problem is, there is not one optimum span of control that will be better than everything else.

The optimum span of control depends on things like the organizational culture and even management style and even the skill level of the subordinates the managers are likely to manage.. What type of manager are you will also have an important role for the span of control.