Time to Revive Luther Gulick, on Span of Control and Organisation Quality, SPA Working Paper 2006:15

• For the last few decades health care services as well as other parts of the public sector have gone through comprehensive rationalisation and financial cut-backs. Rationalisation means, almost by definition, increased demands on managers and their subordinates, since the intention is to retain an unaltered production or produce more with fewer employees. In association with rationalisation the public sector has also used many of the working and managing methods that have developed from and seen to be successful within the private sector. Flat organisations with few management levels and lean production, without essential support resources, have been sought for. This paper is about organisational prerequisites for managers at an operational level within the health care industry. These managers, with direct responsibility for personnel, are usually called supervisors, foremen, middle-managers or first line managers: They work closest to the personnel, the subordinates, and have direct responsibility for personnel, finance and the organisation on a daily basis. The main focus in this paper is on the relationship between the number of employees a manager is responsible for – the span of control - and primarily the quality of the working environment and performance – the internal quality. The purpose of this paper is to show both how the theories around the span of control have developed and also which empirical studies that have been carried out with respect to the span of control’s effect on the quality of the organisation. The paper begins with legislative demands on efficiency and quality in Swedish health care. This is followed by a section on the consequences of a more streamlined organisation, different levels of management, theories on the span of control and a review of empirical studies. The paper ends with a discussion around the importance of the span of control on work environment and performance.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Arbetsmiljö

arbetsorganisation

chef

underställda

kontrollspann

vård

omsorg

kvalitet

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

for (subject category)