Span of Control: [Internal Locus of Control] [Supply Element]: This first span defines the range of resources—not only people as resources but also assets and infrastructure—for which an employee or team is given decision rights. The team is held accountable for performance resulting from deployment of these resources. To narrow the Span a leader reduces the resources allocated to specific positions or units, while to widen the Span, the leader allocates more people, assets, and infrastructure.
I move beyond what Simons has provided by identifying both formal and informal versions of each span element as they operate in both teams and individual jobs. At a fundamental level, control resides in the Authority that is invested in a team or job. This is the amount of Formal Authority held by a team or in a job. This span concerns the resources which an individual employee or team “owns” or has been officially assigned to and provided for this project.
A team or individual employee is more likely to be successful if it gains access to substantial resources in the organization–though with more substantial resources come increased expectations (a dimension of one of the other spans). There is also Informal Authority that influences span of control. This occurs when attention is given to the Patronage which operates in organizations. In this case, resources to which employees and teams have access are officially “owned” by or assigned to others in the organization.
Span of Accountability: [External Locus of Control] [Demand Element]: This second span concerns the range of trade-offs affecting the measures used to evaluate a team’s achievements. The setting of this span is determined by the kind of behavior the team’s supervisor wants to see. As Simons (2005) noted, the span of control and span of accountability are not independent. They must be considered together. The first defines the resources available to a team; the second defines the goals the team is expected to achieve.
By explicitly setting the span of accountability wider than the span of control, leaders can force an employee or members of a team to become more entrepreneurial. In order to narrow the Span, a leader standardizes work by using measures (either financial, such as time-item budget expenses, or non-financial, such as head count) that allow few trade-offs. To widen the Span, a leader typically uses non-financial measures (such as customer satisfaction) or broad financial measures (such as profits) that allow many trade-offs.
I would suggest that residing at the heart of this span is an often-elusive factor called Expectations. An employee or team is more challenged if the expectations of others in the organization are higher (though higher expectations often come with greater authority over and access to organizational resources). There are Formal Expectations. These are the designated and assigned outcomes for the employee or team. Informal Expectations often come in the form of Hope. These are the often unacknowledged, but shared, expectations regarding the outcomes of work done by an individual or team members if they are highly successful. We are likely to be more challenged if the expectations of others in the organization are higher (though higher expectations often come with greater authority over and access to organizational resources).
