Team Size – Gallup Report – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1213

Team Size – Gallup Report – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1213

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1213 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: Matheus Bertelli

Credit: Yusuf Çelik

Preamble

This blog post is based on a recent Gallup® report. Link at the end.

Why Team Size Matters: Insights from Gallup on Optimal Span of Control for Managers

In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, organizations are constantly asking: How many people should report to a manager? While the question seems straightforward, the answer is far from simple. According to new Gallup research, the “span of control” – the number of direct reports a manager oversees – has significant implications for organizational performance, employee engagement, leadership effectiveness, and overall workplace health.

Gallup’s analysis reveals that team size isn’t just an administrative detail. It can influence how managers function, how employees experience their work, and how teams perform. To understand how to design workforces for success in the 21st century, leaders must first grasp what span of control really means, and why it matters more than ever.

What Is Span of Control?

At its core, span of control refers to the number of employees who report directly to a manager. Think of it as the width of the manager’s leadership reach: a wider span means more direct reports, while a narrower span means fewer.

Gallup’s recent research shows:

• About 37% of managers oversee fewer than five people

• Roughly 66% manage fewer than 10

• 22% lead teams of 10–24

• Around 13% have 25 or more direct reports

Yet, while the median team size is around five to six employees, a minority of very large teams skews organizational averages upward. Larger spans often emerge as organizations flatten structures or reduce middle management, shifting more direct reports onto fewer leaders.

Why Team Size Influences Performance

One of Gallup’s central findings, and a theme echoed across its workplace research, is that managers are key drivers of engagement and performance. However, manager engagement itself tends to decline as team size grows.

When managers become stretched thin, overseeing many direct reports, they may struggle to connect meaningfully with each team member. Coaching, performance conversations, and individualized support become harder to sustain. And their own job satisfaction and engagement can erode, which, in turn, negatively affects their teams.

Indeed, Gallup’s work suggests a cascading effect: when managers are more engaged, their employees are also more engaged, and vice versa. But with larger team sizes, that positive cascade weakens unless the manager has the time, tools, training, and talent to sustain quality leadership.

The “Sweet Spot” for Team Size; It Depends

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of optimal span of control. Instead, what Gallup and other organizational studies suggest is that the ideal team size depends on the manager’s capabilities and the complexity of work.

Gallup’s research indicates:

• Moderately talented managers tend to be most effective with smaller teams, often around four or fewer direct reports.

• Highly talented managers with strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills can effectively oversee larger teams, even more than 15 employees, without compromising team engagement and performance.

This highlights a key point: the “optimal” span of control is not merely a number, it is relative to managerial capability and job complexity. Just as a sprinter might excel at short races but struggle with marathons, some managers are naturally better suited to handling large spans of control, while others perform best in more focused, people-intensive settings.

Beyond Numbers: Factors That Shape Optimal Team Size

Work Complexity and Role Variability

Span of control isn’t simply a matter of counting people. The nature of the work those people perform, including variability, complexity, and interdependence, directly influences how many direct reports a manager can effectively oversee.

For example:

• Teams engaged in routine, standardized work (e.g., call centers) may function well with wider spans of control.

• Teams tackling complex, strategic, or creative tasks often require closer guidance, meaning managers with fewer direct reports can provide better support.

What this means in practice is that optimal team size is contextual, shaped by the job’s demands, the team’s skill composition, and the manager’s ability to coordinate, coach, and communicate effectively.

Manager Talent and Capability

Gallup emphasizes that managerial talent matters for span of control. Managers with natural strengths in motivation, collaboration, communication, and strategic thinking can maintain high engagement and performance even with larger teams. Managers lacking these traits struggle with people responsibilities regardless of team size.

This insight has implications for how organizations promote individuals into leadership roles, train and develop managerial talent, and design role expectations and leadership pathways.

Rather than defaulting to promotions based on tenure or technical performance alone, organizations benefit from selecting managers based on demonstrated leadership capabilities and providing them with development opportunities tailored to the span of control they are expected to oversee.

Technology and Process Support

Advances in communication and collaboration technology, from project management platforms to analytics dashboards, can amplify managerial capacity and make it easier to coordinate larger teams. Technology helps streamline performance tracking, feedback loops, knowledge sharing, and asynchronous communication across dispersed teams.

However, technology is not a substitute for leadership presence and interpersonal support. Even with digital support, large spans of control still require intentional prioritization of relationship building, clarity of role expectations, and structured check-ins.

Why Span of Control Matters for Workplaces Today

Engagement and Retention

Manager engagement directly influences employee engagement, which in turn affects retention, productivity, and organizational success. As Gallup notes broadly, manager engagement has been declining, and teams led by disengaged managers are more likely to underperform or experience turnover. In this context, team size becomes a double-edged sword: larger spans may reflect organizational efficiency but risk manager overload and weakened employee engagement if not thoughtfully implemented.

Productivity and Organizational Health

The right span of control can enhance overall productivity by ensuring that managers have enough bandwidth to coach and develop their reports, can maintain regular and meaningful communication, understand team dynamics and individual goals, are not overwhelmed by administrative tasks that detract from leadership time.

Gallup’s emphasis on managerial impact on engagement suggests that organizational performance is closely tied to how well managers can lead, and that span of control plays a pivotal role in that ability.

Practical Guidance for Organizations

Based on Gallup’s insights and broader research on span of control:

Evaluate Team Functions – Assess the nature of work and determine whether a narrow or wide span suits the job complexity.

Assess Manager Capability – Use talent assessments and performance data to identify managerial strengths and match them with appropriate team sizes.

Develop Leadership Skills – Invest in coaching, training, and development that help managers handle larger teams, including time management, delegation, and communication skills.

Leverage Technology Wisely – Use tools that support coordination but also free up time for managers to focus on people leadership rather than administrative tasks.

Monitor Engagement Outcomes – Track manager and employee engagement regularly to ensure that spans of control support positive experiences rather than contributing to burnout or disengagement.

Sum Up

Gallup’s research confirms that span of control is more than an organizational metric; it is a strategic lever that influences leadership effectiveness, team engagement, and long-term organizational health. While there’s no universal number that fits every manager or every team, the principles are clear.

Better span of control decisions stem from understanding the work, the people, and the leadership capabilities involved.

When organizations thoughtfully design spans of control, aligning team sizes with manager strengths, job complexity, and support systems, they position themselves for stronger performance, richer employee experience, and more resilient leaders.

In an era of continuous change, the ability to configure teams wisely may be one of the most powerful drivers of sustainable success.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately. 

Reference:

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/700718/span-control-optimal-team-size-managers.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication