The Manager's Week · Chapter Two
Seventy-Four Names on One Rota
A span of control is a count of relationships, and past a certain size no leader can hold it.
Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306
Chapter Two of The Manager's Week: Where a Manager's Hours Go.
Abstract
A span of control is a count of relationships, and past a certain size no leader can hold it. It is a quarter past seven on a Wednesday, and the nurse manager of two surgical wards is standing at the desk between them with the week's rota in her hand. It is printed, because the screen version will not show both wards at once. There are seventy-four names on it. Each of them is, on the organisation chart, her direct report. She has a yellow highlighter, and she is marking the people she has not spoken to properly in a month, and she has stopped at nineteen because it was making her jaw ache. At half past seven the night charge nurse will hand over. At eight there is a bed meeting. Between nine and eleven there are two return-to-work interviews, a complaint from a family to answer and an incident review. The newly qualified nurse who started on Monday has been told she will meet her manager this week. It is Wednesday.
Cite this chapter
Santa Anna, A. (2026). Seventy-Four Names on One Rota. In The Manager's Week. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989106
@incollection{santaanna2026the2,
author = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
title = {Seventy-Four Names on One Rota},
booktitle = {The Manager's Week},
chapter = {2},
publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23989106},
url = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-managers-week/02-seventy-four-names-on-one-rota/}
}
References
- Simon, H. A. (1946). The proverbs of administration. Public Administration Review, 6(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/973030
- Meier, K. J., & Bohte, J. (2000). Ode to Luther Gulick: Span of control and organizational performance. Administration & Society, 32(2), 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953990022019371
- Meier, K. J., & Bohte, J. (2003). Span of control and public organizations: Implementing Luther Gulick's research design. Public Administration Review, 63(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00264
- Woodward, J. (1965). Industrial organization: Theory and practice. Oxford University Press.
- McCutcheon, A., Doran, D., Evans, M., McGillis Hall, L., & Pringle, D. (2009). Effects of leadership and span of control on nurses' job satisfaction and patient satisfaction. Nursing Leadership, 22(3), 48–67. https://doi.org/10.12927/cjnl.2009.21154
- Meyer, R. M., O'Brien-Pallas, L., Doran, D., Streiner, D., Ferguson-Paré, M., & Duffield, C. (2011). Front-line managers as boundary spanners: Effects of span and time on nurse supervision satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Management, 19(5), 611–622. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.01260.x
- Rajan, R. G., & Wulf, J. (2006). The flattening firm: Evidence from panel data on the changing nature of corporate hierarchies. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(4), 759–773. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.88.4.759
Every chapter of The Manager's Week
- Chapter OneA Week Nobody Planneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989104
- Chapter TwoSeventy-Four Names on One Rotadoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989106
- Chapter ThreeThe Translator's Thursdaydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989108
- Chapter FourGiving the Work Backdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989110
- Chapter FiveWhat the Team Does Without Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989112
- Chapter SixThe First Ninety Daysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989114
- Chapter SevenThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989116
The other books in the library
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyCash Asleep in the Buildingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989319
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyChange That Staysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989557
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book TwoEarneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989328
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume IEnough by Designdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989348
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyLuminous Integral Leadershipdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989368
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Morphic Marketing SeriesLuminous Morphic Marketingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989389
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book OneMindful Leadership Masterydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989430
- Ecstatic EconomicsOwning the Workdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23988988
- Ecstatic EconomicsThe Channel Keeps Itdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989022
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Customer Already Told Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989055
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIIThe Economy That Keeps Becomingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989451
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume VThe Embedded Marketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989474
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume VIThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989502
- Ecstatic EconomicsThe Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989072
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIThe Pasture Was Never Emptydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989523
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Price Nobody Chargeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989120
- Ecstatic EconomicsThe Second Briefdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989141
- Ecstatic Economics · Volume IVThe Standing Forestdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989542
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Strategy That Reaches the Floordoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989179
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWhere the Flow Stopsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989196
- Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWho Decidesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989215
The licence
Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.