Span of control and span of attention
By: Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat, Raffaella Sadun, Julie Wulf
Contributors: Prat, Andrea, author; Sadun, Raffaella, author; Wulf, Julie, 1956- author; Harvard Business School
Edition: Revised edition
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 12-053; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 12-053.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 31
Work titles: Span of control and span of activity
Description: Using novel data on CEO time use, we document the relationship between the size and composition of the executive team and the attention of the CEO. We combine information about CEO span of control for a sample of 65 companies with detailed data on how CEOs allocate their time, which we define as their span of attention. CEOs with larger executive teams do not save time for personal use, or to cultivate external constituencies. Instead, CEOs with broader spans of control invest more in a "team" model of interaction. They spend more time internally, specifically in pre-planned meetings that have more participants from different functions. The complementarity between span of control and the team model of interaction is more prevalent in larger firms.
Notes: "December 2011. (Revised April 2014.)" -- Publisher's website.

Revision of Span of control and span of activity.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-31).