Span of Control’s Significance for Public Sector Employees’ Working Conditions and Well-Being

Sammanfattning: The reforms in the public sector, as consequence of New Public Management, have led to flattened organizational structure, increasing the span of control(SOC) width for managers. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between SOC width, working conditions (job demands, job resources and engaged leadership), employee health and engagement. SOC was measured as predictor for employee health and engagement, where mediation of working conditions effect on the relation was examined. Self-administrated surveys were collected from 1551 employees working under 109 managers in four public sector municipal operations in Sweden. The result displayed that it was unfavorable to have managers with a wide SOC for the employees working conditions, engagement and health. SOC was a significant predictor for health, while mediation of working conditions could not account for the relationship. These results indicate that a narrow SOC may improve working conditions and health outcomes for employees.