Download Factors affecting Span of Control

Political Science and Public Administration (Part 2)
Lecture-2: Core Issues in Public Administration
Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan
Senior most Professor
University of Dhaka
Department of Public Administration
Dhaka -1000
Bangladesh
Organization
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When two or more people get together and
agree to coordinate their activities in order to
achieve their common goals, an organization
is born.
There is really no doubt about the present
meaning of organization. Its purpose is to
create an arrangement of positions and
responsibilities through and by means of
which an enterprise can carry out its work.
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organization can be formulated as follows:
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a. the responsibilities by means of which the
activities of the enterprise are dispersed among
the (managerial, supervisory, and specialist)
personnel employed in its service; and
b. the formal interrelations established among the
personnel by virtue of such responsibilities.
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It must be emphasized that an organization
should not be seen as rigid as the term
“framework” implies. In reality, almost all
organization structures must be occasionally
reviewed due to various changes in the
external environment of the organization in
question.
Moreover, internal changes also occur often
times due to the development of various
informal relationships.
Hierarchy
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A hierarchy is an arrangement of items
(objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in
which the items are represented as being
"above," "below," or "at the same level as"
one another and with only one "neighbor"
above and below each level.
These classifications are made with regard to
rank, importance, seniority, power status or
authority.
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A hierarchy of power is called a power
structure. Abstractly, a hierarchy is simply an
ordered set or an a cyclic graph.
A hierarchy can link entities either directly or
indirectly, and either vertically or horizontally.
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The only direct links in a hierarchy, in so far as
they are hierarchical, are to one's immediate
superior or to one's subordinates, although a
system that is largely hierarchical can also
incorporate other organizational patterns.
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Indirect hierarchical links can extend "vertically"
upwards or downwards via multiple links in the
same direction, following a path.
All parts of the hierarchy which are not
linked vertically to one another nevertheless
can be "horizontally" linked through a path by
travelling up the hierarchy to find a common
direct or indirect superior, and then down
again.
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This is akin to two co-workers or
colleagues; each reports to a common
superior, but they have the same
relative amount of authority.
Unity of Command
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Unity of command is a principle of
management stating that each subordinate
should report to only one superior.
This principle states that every subordinate
should receive orders and be accountable to
one and only one superior. If an employee
receives orders from more than one superior,
it is likely to create confusion and conflict.
Meaning
It implies that a sub-ordinate should
receive orders & instructions from
only one boss.
Nature
It is related to the functioning of
personnel.
Necessity
It is necessary for fixing responsibility
of each subordinate.
It avoids conflicts, confusion & chaos.
Advantage
Result
It leads to better superior subordinate relationship.
Power
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Power is a measure of an individual's potential to get
others to do what he or she wants them to do, as
well as to avoid being forced by others to do what he
or she does not want to do.
Power is broadly defined as "the capacity to bring
about change." It takes many forms, comes from
many places, and is measured in many ways.
Understanding all the varieties of power is essential if
one is to understand who has it, who doesn't, and
how those who don't have it can get it.
Types of Power
Five types of power in management are: reward, coercive, legitimate,
referent, and expert. (Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas,Page 247 chapter
10)
Reward power means an employee believes they are going to get
some type of reward for doing his job. The reward could be pay, days
off, etc. The employee believes the reward will be coming from the
supervisor.
Coercive power is a supervisor intimidating an employee to do
the work or his can be fired or demoted.
Legitimate Power when an officer believes that the orders
being given are based on rules & regulations & his superior has
the right to give such orders.
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Referent power is when one person has an attraction somehow
to the person giving the power. The individual will basically do
anything the person with power says because the attraction is
so strong. An example could be a group of teens with one teen
just trying to become one of the members of the group and
they tell him to jump off a bridge. The outsider is going to do it
because he wants to be part of the group due to the attraction
the group holds to him.
Expert power is based on one individual believing that another
individual has so much expertise in an area that he believes
everything that is being told to him. The example used is the
client/attorney example.
Span of Control
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Span of control is a term originating in military organization
theory, but now used more commonly in business management,
particularly human resource management. Span of control
refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has.
In the hierarchical business organization of the past it was not
uncommon to see average spans of 1 to 10 or even less. That
is, one manager supervised ten employees on average. In the
1980s corporate leaders flattened many organizational
structures causing average spans to move closer to 1 to 100.
That was made possible primarily by the development of
inexpensive information technology.
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As information technology was
developed capable of easing many
middle manager tasks – like collecting,
manipulating and presenting
operational information – upper
managers found they could hire fewer
middle managers to do more work
managing more subordinates for less
money.
Factors affecting Span of Control
These are the factors affecting span of control:
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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 of control will be smaller.
Capability of workers: If workers are highly capable, and do not
require much supervision and can be left on their own, i.e: 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 smaller.
Similarity of task: If the tasks 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.
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The first to develop a more general theory of
management was Henri Fayol, who had gathered
empirical experience during his time as general
manager of a coal and steel company, the
Commentary-Fourchambault Company.
He was first to add a managerial perspective to the
problem of organizational governance. The rationale
for defining a strict hierarchy of communication
channels is found in the need for vertical integration
of activities, imposed by management's need for
control and information.
Authority and Responsibility
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The term “authority” refers to an abstract concept
with both sociological and psychological components.
As a child born of a myriad of different social
situations which have some rough similarities, no
easy definition exists. Of particular concern
throughout the literature on the topic is the
entanglement of the concepts of authority, power,
and legitimacy.
This is a concern not only in the abstract, but also in
the concrete because scholars themselves are often
guilty of entangling them.
Weber on Authority
Max Weber, in his sociological work, identified and
distinguished three types of legitimate domination,
that have sometimes been rendered in English
translation as types of authority, because domination
isn't seen as a political concept in the first place.
The first type discussed by Weber is rational-legal
authority. It is that form of authority which depends
for its legitimacy on formal rules and established laws
of the state, which are usually written down and are
often very complex.
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The second type of authority is traditional authority, which
derives from long-established customs, habits and social
structures. When power passes from one generation to another,
then it is known as traditional authority.
The third form of authority is charismatic authority. Here, the
charisma of the individual or the leader plays an important role.
Charismatic authority is that authority which is derived from
"the gift of grace" or when the leader claims that his authority is
derived from a "higher power" (e.g. God or natural law or
rights) or "inspiration", that is superior to both the validity of
traditional and rational-legal authority and followers accept this
and are willing to follow this higher or inspired authority, in the
place of the authority that they have hitherto been following.
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Responsibility is the obligation to accomplish the
goals related to the position and the organization.
Managers, no matter at what level of the
organization, typically have the same basic
responsibilities when it comes to managing the work
force: direct employees toward objectives, oversee
the work effort of employees, deal with immediate
problems, and report on the progress of work to their
superiors.
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Managers' primary responsibilities are to
examine tasks, problems, or opportunities in
relationship to the organization's short-and
long-range goals.
They must be quick to identify areas of
potential problems, continually search for
solutions, and be alert to new opportunities
and ways to take advantage of the best ones.
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How effectively goals and objectives are
accomplished depends on how well the
organization goals are broken down into
jobs and assignments and how well
these are identified and communicated
throughout the organization.
Leadership
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Leadership has been described as the “process of social
influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of
others in the accomplishment of a common task”.
Definitions more inclusive of followers have also emerged. Alan
Keith of Genentech states that, "Leadership is ultimately about
creating a way for people to contribute to making something
extraordinary happen.“
According to Ken "SKC" Ogbonnia, "effective leadership is the
ability to successfully integrate and maximize available
resources within the internal and external environment for the
attainment of organizational or societal goals."
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Leadership remains one of the most relevant aspects of the
organizational context. However, defining leadership has been
challenging and definitions can vary depending on the situation.
According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, “leadership is about
capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use
their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue
between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes
and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own
values and visions clearly but not impose them.
Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas,
identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for
substantive improvement rather than managing change.”
The Two Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership
According to a study by the Hay Group,
a global management consultancy,
there are 75 key components of
employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee,
2004). They found that:
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Trust and confidence in top leadership is
the single most reliable predictor of
employee satisfaction in an organization.
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Effective communication by leadership in
three critical areas was the key to winning
organizational trust and confidence:
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Helping employees understand the organization's
overall business strategy.
Helping employees understand how they
contribute to achieving key business objectives.
Sharing information with employees on both how
the company is doing and how an employee's own
division is doing - relative to strategic business
objectives.
Centralization and Decentralization
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Centralization is said to be a process where the concentration
of decision making is in a few hands. All the important decisions
and actions at the lower level, all subjects and actions at the
lower level are subject to the approval of top management.
According to Allen, “centralization” is the systematic and
consistent reservation of authority at central points in the
organization. The implication of centralization can be :
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Reservation of decision making power at the top level.
Reservation of operating authority with the middle level
managers.
Reservation of operation at lower level at the directions of
the top level.
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Under centralization, the important and key decisions
are taken by the top management and the other
levels are implementations as per the directions of
the top level.
For example, in a business concern, the father & son
being the owners decide about the important matters
and all the rest of functions like product, finance,
marketing, personnel, are carried out by the
department heads and they have to act as per
instruction and orders of the two individuals.
Therefore, in this case, decision making power
remain in the hands of father & son.
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On the other hand, decentralization is a systematic delegation
of authority at all levels of management and in all of the
organization. In a decentralization concern, authority is retained
by the top management for taking major decisions and framing
policies concerning the whole concern. Rest of the authority
may be delegated to the middle level and lower level of
management.
The degree of centralization and decentralization will depend
upon the amount of authority delegated to the lowest level.
According to Allen, “decentralization refers to the systematic
effort to delegate to the lowest level of authority except that
which can be controlled and exercised at central points”.
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Decentralization is not the same as delegation. In
fact, decentralization is all extension of delegation.
Decentralization pattern is wider is scope and the
authorities are diffused to the lowest most level of
management. Delegation of authority is a complete
process and takes place from one person to another.
While decentralization is complete only when fullest
possible delegation has taken place. For example, the
general manager of a company is responsible for
receiving the leave application for the whole of the
concern.
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The general manager delegates this work to the personnel
manager who is now responsible for receiving the leave
applicants. In this situation delegation of authority has taken
place. On the other hand, on the request of the personnel
manager ,if the general manager delegates this power to all the
departmental heads at all level, in this situation decentralization
has taken place.
There is a saying that “Everything that increases the role of
subordinates is decentralization and that decreases the role is
centralization”. Decentralization is wider in scope and the
subordinate’s responsibility increases in this case. On the other
hand, in delegation the managers remain answerable even for
the acts of subordinates to their superiors.
Supervision
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There are several interpretations of the term
"supervision", but typically supervision is the
activity carried out by supervisors to oversee
the productivity and progress of employees
who report directly to the supervisors.
For example, first-level supervisors supervise
entry-level employees. Depending on the size
of the organization, middle-managers
supervise first-level supervisors, chief
executives supervise middle-managers, etc.
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Supervision is a management activity and
supervisors have a management role in the
organization.
Occasionally, writers will interchange
"leadership" and "supervision". Both activities
are closely related. Supervision requires
leadership. Leadership does not necessarily
have to involve supervision.
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Supervision of a group of employees often includes
1. Conducting basic management skills (decision making,
problem solving, planning, delegation and meeting
management)
2. Organizing their department and teams
3. Noticing the need for and designing new job roles in the
group
4. Hiring new employees
5. Training new employees
6. Employee performance management (setting goals,
observing and giving feedback, addressing performance
issues, firing employees, etc.)
7. Conforming to personnel policies and other internal
regulations
Line and Staff
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Organizational structure involves, in addition
to the task of organizational boundary
considerations, the designation of jobs within
an organization and the relationships among
those jobs.
There are numerous ways to structure jobs
within an organization, but two of the most
basic forms include simple line structures and
line-and-staff structures.
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In a line organization, top management
has complete control, and the chain of
command is clear and simple. Examples
of line organizations are small
businesses in which the top manager,
often the owner, is positioned at the
top of the organizational structure and
has clear "lines" of distinction between
him and his subordinates.
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Staff positions serve the organization by
indirectly supporting line functions. Staff
positions consist of staff personnel and staff
managers. Staff personnel use their technical
expertise to assist line personnel and aid top
management in various business activities.
Staff managers provide support, advice, and
knowledge to other individuals in the chain of
command.
Decision Making
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Decision making can be regarded as an
outcome of mental processes (cognitive
process) leading to the selection of a
course of action among several
alternatives.
Every decision making process produces
a final choice. The output can be an
action or an opinion of choice.
Models of Decision-making
There is no right or wrong way
to make decisions. Sometimes cautious
deliberation is the best path; at other
times risks are required. But scholars
speak about two broad categories of
models of decision-making: rational and
non-rational models.
Rational decisions are choices based on judgment of
preferences and outcomes. They do not always turn out
best and they do not eliminate the possibility of failure.
Sometimes the goal is so important that it is rational to
choose an option with little promise of payoff. Opting for
experimental surgery is a rational choice over a life of
pain.
In non-rational models choices do not result from the
deliberate balancing of pros and cons. These models
share the assumption that the mix of rules and
participants shape choices, and that decisions result
from the varying (though not necessarily accidental)
mix of ingredients. Most of governmental decisions are
within these models.
Taken to extremes, rational models reduce human
judgment to computation, and non-rational models
portray decision outcomes as the result of forces
beyond individual control.
Both rational and non-rational models of the decision
process are products of value-neutral social science.
Values enter rational decision models only in the form
of preferences, but they are generally defined in
terms of self-interest. An emerging view of decisionmaking places a stronger emphasis on decisions as
value statements.