Watch for the “I-formation”
by John Whittlesey
HMC’s Span of Control Analysis (SOC) measures the efficiency of your departmental organizational structures. With it, we sometimes see the dreaded “I” formation. It exists when there is a middle manager that reports to another manager or director, and that other manager or director has no other direct reports. It almost always generates an immediate flag for a potential span problem.
There may be logical reasons for this, such as a succession plan, or if one of the managers has specific content knowledge. But generally it means that one of the positions is redundant, and the questions become:
1) Do I need either or both of these positions?
2) Do I have an extra layer of management?
3) Does the under-spanned position(s) have the capacity and the skill set to take on additional responsibilities?
4) How does this structure help or hinder decision making?
Take a look at the example below. The director of supply chain management only has one report; the supply chain manager has 6.8 direct reports. Technically, both positions are under spanned (the director should have about four DREs and the manager should have about 16 DREs). The department is too small to support its existing management structure. So, one of the positions is redundant, and one of the positions could take on additional responsibilities – such as patient transport, valet, security, sterile processing, or the print shop.
So now it’s up to the senior team to evaluate the skill sets and abilities of the two management positions and make a decision. “Do I get rid of the director, or do I get rid of the manager?”
