Span of control and the significance for public sector managers’ job demands: A multilevel study

Linda Wallin, Anders Pousette and Lotta Dellve
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Linda Wallin: University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Anders Pousette: University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Lotta Dellve: University of Borås, Sweden; Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2014, vol. 35, issue 3, 455-481

Abstract: The aim of this article is to investigate how span of control influences seven job demands common amongst operational public sector managers. Self-administrated surveys were collected from 434 managers organized in 37 municipal operations, i.e. management teams in a set of public organizations in Sweden, and complemented with register data. Multilevel analyses were performed and it was shown unfavorable to have a large number of subordinates for the majority of job demands investigated. Furthermore, managers who were members of management teams with a higher average span of control experience some job demands to an even higher extent. Thus, the results of this study demonstrate that span of control is a key upstream component of managers’ job demands and emphasize the value of a reasonable number of subordinates.

Keywords: Management; organization; public sector; span of control; working conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:35:y:2014:i:3:p:455-481

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X13488002

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