Data vintage: April 2026; n/a (audit); 2026·Retrieved 2026-07-26·Sources verified
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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)
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: 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.