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Not Too Narrow, Not Too Broad: Linking Span of Control, Leadership Behavior, and Employee Job Satisfaction in Public Organizations

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

DOI

How does organizational structure shape the role of leadership? Research emphasizes negative implications of broad spans of control, but theory and empirical research about span of control and leadership are sparse. We develop theoretical arguments about span of control and transformational, transactional, and distributed leadership and argue that employees in units with medium-sized spans of control observe more leadership and have higher job satisfaction. Furthermore, that span of control can affect leadership behaviors differently. The arguments are tested on multilevel survey data from 393 nursing managers and 1,699 nurses in Danish hospitals. We find that employees experience more leadership behavior and higher job satisfaction under medium spans of control compared to narrow and broad spans of control. Consequently, span of control should still be considered an important aspect of organizational design when active leadership behavior and high employee job satisfaction are warranted.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftPublic Administration Review
Vol/bind83
Nummer4
Sider (fra-til)775-792
Antal sider18
ISSN0033-3352
DOI
StatusUdgivet - jul. 2023

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