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How Many Direct Reports?

posted Jun 5, 2016, 1:49 PM by Julie Wulf   [ updated Jun 17, 2016, 7:47 AM by Julie Wulf ]
Harvard Business Review, April 2012
If senior executives are feeling ever-increasing pressure on their time—and few would suggest that’s not the case—why would they add more to their plates? It seems counter intuitive, but according to our research into C-level roles over the past two decades, the CEO’s average span of control, measured by the number of direct reports, has doubled, rising from about five in the mid-1980s to almost 10 in the mid-2000s. The leap in the chief executive’s purview is all the more remarkable when you consider that companies today are vastly more complex, globally dispersed, and strictly scrutinized than those of previous generations.
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Julie Wulf,
Jun 5, 2016, 1:49 PM