J Korean Acad Nurs Adm.  2017 Sep;23(4):373-384. 10.11111/jkana.2017.23.4.373.

Span of Control in Front-Line Nurse Managers

Affiliations
  • 1Graduate School, Ewha Womans University, Korea.
  • 2College of Nursing, Ewha Womans University, Korea. mykim0808@ewha.ac.kr

Abstract

PURPOSE
Span of Control defines the scope of the managers' responsibilities to manage nursing staff. This study was done to measure span of control of front-line nurse managers (FLNMs) in Korea hospitals resulting in improvement in their work efficiency.
METHODS
A sample of 203 FLNMs from five tertiary hospitals was recruited and completed the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using χ²-test, Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé, and Pearson correlation coefficient.
RESULTS
FLNMs had "˜narrow' (n=8, 4.3%), "˜appropriate' (n=161, 87.0%), and "˜wide' (n=16, 8.6%) span of control. Span of control had significant correlations with the number of nurses (r=.63, p<.001), the number of non-nurses (r=.53, p<.001), units (r=.52, p<.001), staff (r=.83, p<.001), and programs (r=.67, p<.001).
CONCLUSION
The research findings indicate that attention should be given to unit complexity, program diversity, total staff, and skills. Moreover, administrators of hospital and nursing departments need to provide systematic support in accordance with FLNMs' wide span of control.

Keyword

Personnel management; Workload; Nurse managers

MeSH Terms

Administrative Personnel
Humans
Korea
Nurse Administrators*
Nursing
Nursing Staff
Personnel Management
Tertiary Care Centers

Cited by  1 articles

Factors Influencing Managerial Competence of Frontline Nurse Managers
Ran Lee, Miyoung Kim, Sujin Choi, Hee Yeon Shin
J Korean Acad Nurs Adm. 2018;24(5):435-444.    doi: 10.11111/jkana.2018.24.5.435.


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