homemoney to purchasehow To limit such men and women to controlling a fixed number of people would be foolish; equally, there are so many highly technical management Operations involving much thought, time, and talk that it would be impossible for a manager, in these conditions, to do justice to the control of more than a minimum of subordinates. In any case personality is an overriding factor. There are businesses today which still depend to an overwhelming extent on the drive and enthusiasm of one man or woman. To shackle drive and enthusiasm to the perfections of a settled span of control however well it might look on paper and however logical it might sound organizationally would be sacrificing very special advantages. 6o The Business of Management There is however a clear distinction between a 'span of control', subject as it is to the kind of limitations and qualifications discussed in the previous paragraph, and the far more important question of managerial responsibility. It may well be, for example, that in the branch office of a shipping company the manager can only do justice, in terms of control, to a handful of people but this must surely not be confused with his responsibilities which extend to the most recently joined member of the staff and which need to recognize the potential of every single human being in his charge. There is a world of difference between managing and controlling people; management implies the development of everyone's talents around the manager. Control is a straightforward organizational matter. There is a useful passage in Peter Drucker's Practice of Management which merits full quotation here : The span of control, we are told, cannot exceed six or eight subordinates. The span of managerial responsibility, however, is determined by the extent to which assistance and teaching are needed. It can only be set by a study of the concrete situation. Unlike the span of control, the span of managerial responsibility broadens as we move upwards in the organization The span of managerial responsibility is therefore wider than the span of con control and where good practice would counsel against stretching the span of control, a manager should always have responsibility for a few more men than he can really take care of. Otherwise the temptation is to supervise them, that is, to take over their jobs or, at least, to breathe down their necks. ... Delegation must not be confused with decentralization. Delegation is a question of trust and expediency; the need for decentralization arises from growth. It is primarily an organizational matter. When an organization grows in size a point is reached The Business of Management 61 when it can be far more effectively managed by regrouping the functions so as to give local managers greater responsibility. For example, a new factory may be set up to manufacture a complete set of products. Initially it may be that the manager is only concerned with production, but later he may have added factory accountancy, research, and sales to his responsibilities. Household