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Ode to Luther Gulick

Span of Control and Organizational Performance

Texas A&M University

John Bohte

Oakland University

Early management scholars such as Henri Fayol, Lydal Urwick, and Luther Gulick argued that principles such as specialization of labor and hierarchical leadership structures would result in optimal organizational performance. This perspective was attacked by Herbert Simon, who argued that the principles of administrative management were vague and contradictory. Simon’s devastating critique was widely accepted, and scholars soon turned their attention away from studying the principles of management. Ironically, little systematic research existed on many of the principles of management at the time Simon leveled his critique. In this study, the goal is to refocus attention on a particular principle of management, span of control, most closely associated with Luther Gulick. After discussing the importance of span of control to their understanding of organizational behavior, the authors present a theory that links span of control to organizational performance. They test their theory by examining how span of control relationships among personnel in public schools influence student performance, using data on 678 Texas school districts over a 4-year period. The findings reveal that span of control relationships among organizational personnel significantly shape student performance.

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