How many employees can a manager efficiently and effectively supervise? This question of span of control received a great deal of attention from early management writers. Although they came to no consensus on a specific number, most favored small spans—typically no more than six workers—in order to maintain close control.11 However, several writers did acknowledge level in the organization as a contingency variable. They argued that as a manager rises in an organization, he or she has to deal with a greater number of unstructured problems, so top managers need a smaller span than do middle managers, and middle managers require a smaller span than do supervisors. Over the last decade, however, we’ve seen some change in theories about effective spans of control.12

Many organizations are increasing their spans of control. The span for managers at such companies as General Electric and Kaiser Aluminum has expanded significantly in the past decade. It has also expanded in the federal government, where efforts to increase the span of control are being implemented to save time in making decisions.13 The most effective and efficient span of control is increasingly being determined by looking at contingency variables.