Journal of Nursing Administration, September 2004, 34(9): 395-399.

SPAN OF CONTROL MATTERS

As managers’ span of control increases, employee engagement

decreases
Abstracted from: Deb Cathcart, MS, RN Sue E. Miller, MS, RN, Susan Jeska,
EdD, MBA, RN Judy Pechacek, MS, RN Joan Karnas, MS, RN Lolita Rheault,
BA, RN

Writing in the September 2004 Journal of Nursing Administration, Deb Cathcart, director of
nursing administration at Minneapolis-based Fairview University Medical Center, and colleagues
discuss their study showing that mangers’ larger spans of control negatively influence staff
engagement, which they define as “the degree to which an employee is fully committed to
bringing his/her best efforts in his/her role every day.” The authors note that in an effort to reduce
costs many health care institutions eliminate management positions, increasing the span of
control for remaining managers but possibly damaging staff engagement. Although a number of
studies have shown the negative effects of large spans of control, the authors state that theirs is
the first study to assess the impact on staff engagement. Based on the study’s results, Fairview
Health Services added management positions in four patient care areas. One year later, all four
units saw improved mean engagement scores, with one unit’s scores improving by 14%.

Methodology and results

A team of middle managers conducted the study at Fairview, where spans of control—defined as
“the number of direct reports”—ranged from five direct reports to more than 100; 13% of
managers had more than 40 direct reports. The team reviewed Gallup survey data rating
employee engagement and found that “as work group size increased, employee engagement
decreased.” The results did not significantly change when the team controlled for demographic
variables such as tenure, work status, and position. The team also found that “certain factors
differentiated” the groups that had the best and worst engagement scores: For groups of 15 or
fewer employees, feeling that “their opinions counted in the workplace” positively influenced
engagement level, while groups of more than 15 had better engagement scores if “there was
someone at work who encouraged their development.”

Span of control’s tipping point

Finally, the team assessed the point at which span of control had a negative effect on employee
engagement by “adjust[ing] work group sizes” and looking at when “engagement scores dropped
most significantly.” They found that “scores dropped noticeably” when work group sizes grew
larger than 15 and again when they exceeded 40 employees. The authors conclude that hospital
leaders should conduct a “careful review of manager spans of control to address the untoward
effects…on employee engagement.”