Org Structure · Management
Span of Control Benchmarks
Structure · current reference
No open benchmark
No open cross-industry benchmark exists — two public-sector audits and an archetype range instead.
What exists instead
StatusSourcing gap, stated
Published hereWhat the sourcing actually found
Publisher(s)City of Portland, City and County of Honolulu, Office of the City Auditor, McKinsey & Company
No open, official cross-industry benchmark was identified during sourcing. Rather than publish a synthetic average, this page shows the evidence that does exist and names the gap.
Compare your number
Span of Control Comparator
No open, official, cross-industry span-of-control benchmark exists (F5-adjacent gap — see below). Compares against two published public-sector audits instead.
Span of Control Comparator
Benchmark Table
Published Span-of-Control Figures (Public Sector Audits)
The only verified, openly published span-of-control figures found during sourcing.
| Segment | Value | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| City of Portland (government) | 7.7 direct reports/manager | April 2026 |
| City of Portland (government) | 4 direct reports/manager | April 2026 |
| City of Portland (government) | 11 direct reports/manager | April 2026 |
| City and County of Honolulu (audit) | 4.8 direct reports/supervisor | n/a (audit) |
Denominator: direct reports per supervisor (Honolulu audit definition)
Gap honesty
Span of Control: No Open Cross-Industry Benchmark Exists
Where no verifiable open benchmark exists, we say so — instead of publishing a number that doesn’t hold up.
Span of control — organizational archetype range · Global (org design archetypes)
McKinsey org archetypes: typical span runs from 3–5 direct reports (traditional/hierarchical archetype) up to 15+ (flat/agile archetype), depending on organizational archetype.
Gap finding
Gap finding: no open, official, cross-industry benchmark for span of control was identified (“no single target span” — Portland memo). hrref publishes what actually exists (public-sector cases + archetype range) instead of a single figure.