HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION «

Improving the performance of key people is often

as simple-and as profound-as changing the
resources they control and the results for which
they are accountable. by Robert Simons

HIGH-PERFORMANCE JOBS
have a compelling: product, an exciting vision, and a clear
;gy for your new business. You've hired good people and
foiPd relationships with critical suppliers and distributors. You've
launched a marketing campaign targeting high-value customers.
All that remains is to build an organization that can deliver on the
promise.
But implementation goes badly. Managers in the regional offices
don't show enough entrepreneurial spirit. They are too complacent
and far too slow in responding to customers. Moreover, it's proving
very difficult to coordinate activities across units to serve large,
multisite customers. Decision making is fragmented, and time to
market is much longer than expected. Excessive costs are eating
away at profit margins. You begin to wonder: "Have I put the wrong
people in critical jobs?" But the problems are more widespread than
that - in fact, they're systemic across the organization.

JULY-AUGUST 2005 55
» THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION

This tale of a great strategy derailed by poor execution are also the resources whose performance the manager is
is all too common. Of course, there are many possible rea- held accountable for. Executives must adjust the span of
sons for such a failure and many people who might be to control for each key position and unit on the basis of how
blame. But if this story reminds you of your own experi- the company delivers value to customers.
ence, have you considered the possibility that your orga- Consider Wal-Mart, which has configured its entire or-
nization is designed to fail? Specifically, are key jobs struc- ganization to deliver low prices. Wal-Mart's strategy de-
tured to achieve the business's performance potential? If pends on standardization of store operations coupled
not, unhappy consequences are all but inevitable. with economies of scale in merchandising, marketing, and
In this article, I present an action-oriented framework distribution. To ensure standardization, Wal-Mart sets the
that will show you how to design jobs for high perfor- span of control for store managers at the "narrow" end of
mance. My basic point is straightforward: For your busi- the scale. Although they nominally control their stores,
ness to achieve its potential, each employee's supply of or- Wal-Mart site managers have limited decision rights re-
ganizational resources should equal his or her demand for garding hours of operation, merchandising displays, and
them, and the same supply-and-demand balance must pricing. By contrast, the span of control for managers at
apply to every function, every business unit, and the en- corporate headquarters who oversee merchandising and
tire company. Sounds simple, and it is. But only if you un- other core operations is set at"wide."They are responsible
derstand what determines this balance and how you can for implementing best practices and consolidating opera-
influence it. tions to capture economies of scale. In addition to control-
ling purchasing, merchandising, and distribution, these
managers even control the lighting and temperature at
The Four Spans of Job Design Wal-Mart's 3,500 stores by remote computer. (The set-
To understand what determines whether a job is designed tings for the two jobs are compared in the exhibit "Spans
for high performance, you must put yourself in the shoes of Control at Wal-Mart.")
of your organization's managers. To carry out his or her Of course, the spans of control will be set very differ-
job, each employee has to know the answer to four basic ently in companies that follow different strategies. Con-
questions: sider Nestle, a food company that reformulates its prod-
• "What resources do I control to accomplish my tasks?" ucts in response to regional tastes for spices and sweets. In
• "What measures will be used to evaluate my perfor- this "local value creation" configuration, the span of con-
mance?" trol for regional business managers is set very wide so
• "Who do I need to interact with and influence to that they have all the resources they need to customize
achieve my goals?" products and respond to customers. Regional managers
• "How much support can I expect when I reach out to take responsibility for sales, product development, distri-
others for help?" bution, and manufacturing. As a consequence, the spans
The questions correspond to what I call the four basic of control for managers back at the head office are rela-
spans of a job: control, accountability, influence, and sup- tively narrow, covering only logistics, the supply chain,
port. Each span can be adjusted so that it is narrow or global contracts, and accounting and finance.
wide or somewhere in between. I think of the adjust- The Span of Accountability. The second span refers to the
ments as being made on sliders, like those found on music range of trade-offs affecting the measures used to evalu-
amplifiers. If you get the settings right, you can design a ate a manager's achievements. For example, a person who
job in which a talented individual can successfully exe- is accountable for head count or specific expenses in an
cute your company's strategy. But if you get the settings operating budget can make few trade-offs in trying to im-
wrong, it will be difficult for any employee to be effective. prove the measured dimensions of performance and so
I'll look at each span in detail and discuss how managers has a narrow span of accountability. By contrast, a man-
can adjust the settings. (The exhibif'The Four Spans"pro- ager responsible for market share or business profit can
vides a summary.) make many trade-offs and thus has a relatively wide span
The Span of Control. The first span defines the range of of accountability.
resources-not only people but also assets and infrastruc- Your setting for this span is determined by the kind of
ture - for which a manager is given decision rights. These behavior you want to see. To ensure compliance with de-
tailed directives, hold managers to narrow measures. To
Robert Simons (rsimons(§hbs.edu) is the Charles M. Williams encourage creative thinking, make them responsible for
Professor of Business Administratior\ at Harvard Business broad metrics such as market share, customer satisfac-
School in Boston. He is the author of Levers of Organiza- tion, and return on capital employed, which allow them
tion Design: How Managers Use Accountability Systems greater freedom.
for Greater Perfonnance and Commitment (Harvard Busi- The span of control and the span of accountability are
ness School Press, 2005). not independent. They must be considered together. The

56 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

 Designing High-Performance Jobs

THE FOUR SPANS

Managers can adjust the spans of job design to create positions that are tuned for optimum performance.

TO NARROW THE SPAN TO WIDEN THE SPAN

Narrow Wide
O— —O
Span of control Reduce resources allocated to specific Allocate more people, assets, and
positions or units. infrastructure.

Span of accountability Standardize work by using measures (either Use nonfinancial measures (such as customer
financial, such as line-item budget expenses, satisfaction) or broad financial measures (such
or nonfinancial, such as head count) that as profit) that allow many trade-offt.
allow few trade-offe.

Span of influence Require people to pay attention only to their Inject creative tension through structures, sys-
own Jobs; do not allocate costs across units; tems, and goals-for example, cross-unit teams,
use single reporting lines; and reward indi- dotted lines, matrix structures, stretch goals,
vidual performance. cross-unit cost allocations, and transfer prices.

Span of support Use leveraged, highly individualized rewards, Build shared responsibilities through purpose
and clearly single out winners and losers. and mission, group identification, trust, and
equity-based incentive plans.

first defines the resources available to a manager; the sec- stock price, earnings per share, and competitive market
ond defines the goals the manager is expected to achieve. position. A McDonald's store manager has a much nar-
You might conclude, therefore, that the two spans should rower span. She must focus on compliance with standard
be equally wide or narrow. As the adage goes, authority operating procedures, and she is monitored through de-
should match responsibility. But in high-performing or- tailed input and process measures.
ganizations, many people are held to broad performance The Span of Influence. The third span corresponds to the
measures such as brand profit and customer satisfaction, width of the net that an individual needs to cast in col-
even though they do not control all the resources-man- lecting data, probing for new information, and attempt-
ufacturing and service, for example - needed to achieve ing to infiuence the work of others. An employee with a
the desired results. narrow span of influence does not need to pay much at-
There is a good reason for this discrepancy. By explic- tention to people outside his small area to do his job ef-
itly setting the span of accountability wider than the fectively. An individual with a wide span must interact
span of control, executives can force their managerial extensively with, and infiuence, people in other units.
subordinates to become entrepreneurs. In fact, entrepre- As is the case with the other spans, senior managers can
neurship has been defined (by Howard H. Stevenson and adjust the span of influence to promote desired behaviors.
J. Carlos Jarillo) as "the process by which individuals - ei- They can widen the span when they want to stimulate
ther on their own or inside organizations-pursue oppor- people to think outside the box to develop new ways of
tunities without regard to the resources they currently serving customers, increasing internal efficiencies, or
control." What happens when employees are faced with adapting to changes in external markets. In many com-
this entrepreneurial gap? They must use their energy and panies, widening the span of influence counteracts the
creativity to figure out how to succeed without direct con- rigidity of organizational structures based on boxes and
trol ofthe resources they need. (See the exhibit "Creating silos. For example, although global companies like Proc-
the Entrepreneurial Gap.") Thus, managers can adjust ter & Gamble need to be responsive to local customers'
these two spans to stimulate creativity and entrepreneur- needs, they must also create pressure for people in differ-
ial behavior. ent operations to look beyond their silos to consolidate
Of course, spans of accountability vary by level in most operations and share best practices to lower costs. Simi-
organizations-in general, they are wider at the top ofa larly, firms such as big-box retailers that centralize mer-
company and narrower at the bottom. The CEO of McDon- chandising and distribution to deliver low prices must en-
ald's has a wide span of accountability that encompasses sure that they continue to monitor changing competitive

JULY-AUGUST 2005 57
» THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION

dynamics. Operations managers who are insulated from

the marketplace must be forced to interact with people in SPANS OF CONTROL AT WAL-MART
units that are closest to customers. In all of these cases, it's
The spans of control for a store manager and a merchan-
up to senior managers to ensure that individuals work
dising manager at Wal-Mart are quite different. To ensure
across organizational boundaries to test new ideas, share
standardization in operations, Wal-Mart gives the store
information, and leam.
manager relatively little control. To promote the imple-
Executives can widen a manager's span of influence by
mentation of best practices, the company gives the mer-
redesigning her job - placing her on a cross-functional
chandising manager a "wide" setting.
team, for example, or giving her an assignment that re-
quires her to report to two bosses. They can also adjust a Narrow Wide
job's span of influence through the level of goals they set. Few resources Many resources
Although the nature of a manager's goals drives her span O •o-
of accountability (by determining the trade-offs she can Store manager Corporate
merchandising
make), the level, or difficulty, drives her sphere of influ- manager
ence. Someone given a stretch goal will often be forced to
seek out and interact with more people than someone
whose goal is set at a much lower level. Finally, executives and should stay focused on their own work (and should
can use accounting and control systems to adjust the span be compensated solely for their success in generating
of influence. For example, the span will be wider for man- profit).
agers who are forced to bear the burden of indirect cost But wide spans of support become critically important
allocations generated by other units, because they will at- when customer loyalty is vital to strategy implementa-
tempt to influence the decisions of the units responsible tion (for example, at exclusive hotel chains) or when the
for the costs. organizational design is highly complex because of so-
The more complex and interdependent the job, the phisticated technologies and a complex value chain (in
more important a wide span of influence becomes. In fact, aerospace or computers, for instance). In these cases, in-
a wide influence span is often an indication of both the dividuals throughout the company must move beyond
power and effectiveness of an executive. In describing their job descriptions to respond to requests for help from
eBay's Meg Whitman, for example, A.G. Lafley, the CEO of others who are attempting to satisfy customers or navi-
Procter & Gamble, said, "The measure of a powerful per- gate organizational processes.
son is that their circle of influence is greater than their cir- Managers cannot adjust a job's span of support in iso-
cle of control." lation. That's because the span is largely determined by
The Span of Support. This final span refers to the amount people's sense of shared responsibilities, which in tum
of help an individual can expect from people in other or- stems from a company's culture and values. In many
ganizational units. Again, the slider can be set anywhere cases, therefore, all or most of a company's jobs will have

CAN DIAL IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOR

BY WIDENING OR NARROWING SPANS OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND INFLUENCE.

from narrow to wide depending on how much commit- a wide span of support, or none will. But even within a
ment from others the person needs in order to implement given company culture, there are often circumstances in
strategy. which managers need to widen the span of support sepa-
Jobs in some organizations-particularly positions such rately for key business units (for example, to support a
as commission-based sales in efficient and liquid mar- new division created to bundle and cross sell products
kets-do not need wide spans of support. In fact, such or- from other units) or for key positions (for example, to fa-
ganizations generally operate more efficiently with nar- cilitate the work of cross-functional task forces).
row spans, since each job is independent and individual There are various policies that managers can employ
contributions can be calculated easily at day's end. Trad- to widen spans of support. For example, a focus on a cus-
ers in financial institutions, for example, need little sup- tomer based mission typically creates a sense of shared
port from their fellow traders, and their colleagues can purpose. In addition, broad-based stock ownership plans

58 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

 Designing High-Performance Jobs

units (whom he cannot command) to help him. So that

CREATING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL GAP the manager receives the help he needs, the CEO works
By holding managers accountable for more than they hard to ensure that the job's span of support is wide. An
control, a company can encourage entrepreneurial ethos of mutual responsibilities has been created through
behavior. shared goals, strong group identification, trust, and an eq-
uity component in compensation. As the manager noted,
Narrow Wide
"Coordination happens because we all have customer
Span of control
Few resources Many resources satisfaction as our first priority. We are in constant com-
O • munication, and we all are given consistent customer-
satisfaction objectives."
span of accountability
Measures allow Measures allow
few trade-offs mariy trade-otfs
O - i- • - -o Achieving Equilibrium
At this point, you're probably wondering how to deter-
mine whether specific jobs or business units in your or-
and team- and group-centered incentive programs often ganization are properly designed. Jobs vary within any
foster a sense of equity and belonging and encourage peo- business, and firms operate in different markets with
ple to help others achieve shared goals. Firms that are unique strategies. How exactly should the spans be set in
characterized by wide spans of support also frown on let- these many circumstances?
ting top executives flaunt the trappings of privilege and After the spans have been adjusted to implement your
generally follow a policy of promoting people internally strategy, there's an easy way to find out whether a specific
to senior positions. job is designed for high performance. It's a test that can
The slider settings for the four spans in any job or busi- (and should) be applied to every key job, function, and
ness unit are a function of the business's strategy and the unit in your business. I'll get to the details shortly, but
role of that job or unit in implementing it. When you are first, it's important to recognize the underlying nature of
adjusting job or unit design, the first step is to set the the four spans. TVvo of the spans measure the supply of or-
span of control to reflect the resources allocated to each ganizational resources the company provides to individ-
position and unit that plays an important role in deliver- uals. The span of control relates to the level of direct con-
ing customer value. This setting, like the others, is deter- trol a person has over people, assets, and information. The
mined by how the business creates value for customers span of support is its "softer" counterpart, reflecting the
and differentiates its products and services from com- supply of resources in the form of help from people in
petitors'. Next, you can dial in different levels of entre- the organization.
preneurial behavior and creative tension for specific jobs The other two spans-the span of accountability (hard)
and units by widening or narrowing spans of account- and the span of influence (soft)-determine the individ-
ability and influence. Finally, you must adjust the span of ual's demand for organizational resources. The level of an
support to ensure that the job or unit will get the infor- employee's accountability, as defined by the company, di-
mal help it needs. rectly affects the level of pressure on him to make trade-
The exhibit "Four Spans at a Software Company" dis- offs; that pressure in tum drives his need for organiza-
plays the settings of the spans for a marketing and sales tional resources. His level of influence, as determined by
manager at a well-known company that develops and the structure of his job and the broader system in which
sells complex software for large corporate clients. The his job is embedded, also reflects the extent to which he
span of control for this job is quite narrow. As the man- needs resources. As I pointed out earlier, when an em-
ager stated, "To do my day-to-day job, 1 depend on sales, ployee joins a multidisciplinary initiative, or works for
sales consulting, competency groups, alliances, technical two bosses, or gets a stretch goal, he begins reaching out
support, corporate marketing, field marketing, and inte- across units more frequently.
grated marketing communications. None of these func- For any organization to operate at maximum efficiency
tions reports to me, and most do not even report to my and effectiveness, the supply of resources for each job and
group." The span of accountability, by contrast, is wide. each unit must equal the demand. In other words, span of
The manager is accountable, along with others through- control plus span of support must equal span of account-
out the business, for revenue growth, profit, and customer ability plus span of infiuence. You can determine whether
satisfaction - measures that require responsiveness and any job in your organization is poised for sustained high
a willingness to make many trade-offs. performance - or is designed to fail - by applying this
Note that the span of influence is set somewhat wider simple test: Using "Four Spans at a Software Company"
than the span of control. To get things done, the manager as an example, draw two lines, one connecting span of
has to cross boundaries and convince people in other control and span of support (the supply of resources) and

JULY-AUGUST 2005 59
» THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION

the other connecting span of accountability and span of

influence (the demand for resources).
FOUR SPANS AT A SOFTWARE COMPANY
If these two lines intersect, forming an X, as they do in
the exhibit, then demand equals supply (at least roughly) The settings for a marketing and sales manager show a rel-
and the job is properly designed for sustained perfor- atively narrow span of control and a relatively wide span
mance. If the lines do not cross, then the spans are mis- of accountability. The discrepancy indicates that the com-
aligned - with predictable consequences. If resources pany wants the manager to be entrepreneurial. A reason-
(span of control plus span of support) are insufficient for able span of influence ensures that he has a respectable
the task at hand, strategy implementation will fail; if re- level of collaboration with colleagues outside his unit to
sources are excessive, underutilization of assets and poor compensate for his low span of control. Company policies
economic performance can be predicted.
designed to provide a wide span of support ensure that his
Depending on the desired unit of analysis, this test can entrepreneurial initiatives will get a favorable response.
be applied to an individual job, a function, a business unit, The dotted line connecting the two spans that describe the
and even an entire company.
resources available to the joh (span of control and span of
support) intersects with the line connecting the two spans
When Spans Are Misaligned that describe the job's demand for resources {span of ac-
countability and span of influence). This shows that the
Consider the case of a struggling high-tech company that
5upply of, and demand for, resources that apply to this job
makes medical devices. One division was rapidly losing
revenue and market share to new competitors because of are in rough balance; the joh has been designed to enable
insufficient sales-force coverage and a lack of new-product the manager to succeed.
development. In another division, created to bundle and
cross sell products, managers were unable to get the col- Narrow Wide
laboration they needed to provide a unified solution for Span of control
Few resources Many resources
a large potential customer. In a third, local managers were Q
making decisions that did not support or build on the
company's overall direction and strategy Span of accountability
Measures allow Measures allow
These situations arose because senior managers had few trade-offs many trade-offs
failed to align the four spans for key jobs and for the divi- -r^ O
sions overall. In particular, the problems this company
encountered refiect three common situations that can
limit performance potential. Interactions within unit Interactions across units
The Crisis of Resources. In some cases, the supply of re- O o
sources is simply inadequate for the job at hand, leading
to a failure of strategy implementation. In the medical de- Span of support
\ . Strong commitments
No commitments
vices company, the sales staff had neither enough people of help from others \ , of help from others
to cover the competition (a narrow span of control) nor —i—• o
support from R&D to bring new products to market
rapidly (a narrow span of support). A crisis of resources is
most likely to occur when executives spend too much eration. Evaluations of the local managers failed to rec-
time thinking about control, influence, and accountability ognize or reward people's commitment to help others in
and not enough time thinking about support. They may, the organization. As a result, the span of support was too
for instance, set the span of accountability wider than the low to support the strategy of the business, which even-
span of control to encourage entrepreneurial behavior. tually failed.
And they may set the span of infiuence wider than the The Crisis of Control. Sometimes the supply of resources
span of control to stimulate people to interact and work exceeds demand, leading to suboptimal economic perfor-
across units. But if the span of support is not widened to mance. In highly decentralized organizations where sep-
compensate for the relatively narrow span of control, peo- arate business units are created to be close to customers,
ple in other units will be unwilling to help when asked. a crisis of control can occur when the supply of resources
Consider the local subsidiary of a regional investment (the span of control plus the span of support) exceeds cor-
bank. The managers had few direct resources (a narrow porate management's ability to effectively monitor trade-
span of control) and relied on specialists from corporate offs (the span of accountability) and to ensure coordina-
headquarters to fly in to manage deals. Yet their span of tion of knowledge sharing with other units (the span of
accountability was relatively wide, with performance influence). The result is uncoordinated activities across
measures focusing on successful deals and revenue gen- units, missed opportunities, and wasted resources.

60 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

 Designing High-Performance Jobs

Consider a large telecommunications

company in which regions were orga-
nized as independent business units.
Because of rapid growth, division man-
agers were able to create fiefdoms in
which resources were plentiful. And be-
cause of the company's success, com-
mitment to the business mission was
strong. But before long, the lack of ef-
fective performance monitoring by cor-
porate superiors caught up with the
business. The strategies of the divisions
often worked at cross-purposes; there
was waste and redundancy. Competitors
that were more focused began overtak-
ing the units.
The Crisis of Red Tape. This can occur
in any organization where powerful
staff groups, overseeing key internal
processes such as strategic planning and
resource allocation,design performance
management systems that are too com-
plex for the organization. In such cir-
cumstances, spans of accountability and
influence are very high, but resources
are insufficient and misdirected. End-
less time spent in staff meetings wastes
resources, slows decision making, and
makes the organization unable to re-
spond rapidly to changing customer
needs and competitive actions. The de-
mand for resources exceeds supply, and
strategy execution fails as more nimbie
competitors move in. rowly on professional IT managers in governments and
large companies, IBM began marketing to small compa-
nies, resellers, and distributors. It created experimental
Adjusting the Spans over Time independent business units and gave resources for ex-
Of course, organizations and job designs must change perimentation without imposing any accountability for
with shifting circumstances and strategies. To see how this performance.
plays out in practice, let's look at how the job spans for a By the end of Opel's tenure, IBM was criticized for con-
typical market-facing sales unit at IBM evolved as a result fusion about strategy and priorities. As one writer noted,
ofthe strategic choices made by successive CEOs. "IBM settled into a feeling that it could be all things to all
We pick up the story in 1981, when John Opel became customers." However, the effects of these problems were
IBM's chief executive. IBM had been organized into masked by the dramatic and unrelenting growth of the
stand-alone product groups that were run as profit cen- computer industry during this period.
ters. Reacting to threats from Japanese companies, Opel In 1985, John Akers took over as CEO. The organization
wanted to reposition the business as a low-cost competi- he inherited was configured to develop, manufacture, and
tor. For purposes of increasing cost efficiency, the business market computing hardware in independent silos. Not
was reorganized on a functional basis. The span of control only were products incompatible across categories, they
for operating-core units such as manufacturing was failed to meet customer needs in a world that was moving
widened dramatically, and there was a corresponding re- quickly from hardware to software and customer solu-
duction in the spans of control and accountability for tions. To get closer to customers, Akers created a unified
market-facing sales units (illustrated in the top panel of marketing and services group, organized by region. The
the exhibit "Three Eras at IBM"). The company also en- mission of this new market-facing unit was to translate
larged its definition of "customer." Rather than focus nar- customer needs into integrated product solutions and

)ULY-AUGUST2OO5 61
» THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION

coordinate internal resources to deliver the right products make matters worse, the new profit centers made the
to customers. Business units and divisions were consoli- company extremely complex and fragmented, a situation
dated into six lines of business. The span of control for the reflected in the unit's relatively narrow spans of infiuence
market-facing sales units widened dramatically. and support. As the strategy's failure became evident and
The new marketing and services group was made ac- losses mounted, Akers considered breaking the corpora-
countable for profit, and, as a result, many new profit cen- tion into separate entities.
ters were created. Unfortunately, the existing accounting Lou Gerstner took charge in 1993. He restructured the
system was not capable of calculating profit at the branch business around specific industry groups, narrowing the
level or for individual customers and product lines. In- spans of control and widening the spans of accountability
stead, a top-down planning system run by centralized for marketing and sales units. At the same time, he
staff groups set sales quotas for individual product cate- widened the spans of infiuence by formally pairing prod-
gories. Customer sales representatives thus had few uct specialists with global industry teams, which worked
choices or trade-offs; their span of accountability was not closely with customers. To widen the spans of support, the
wide enough to support the company's new strategy. To company reconfigured bonuses to give more weight to
corporate results than to business-unit performance.
Sam Palmisano took over as CEO in 2002 and rein-
forced the positive changes wrought by Gerstner. The
THREE ERAS AT IBM new CEO's strategy emphasized "on-demand" comput-
The settings for the f o u r spans f o r a typical sales u n i t at ing solutions delivered through seamless integration of
IBM evolved as a result o f t h e strategic choices made by hardware, software, and services. This involved adopting
successive CEOs. a team-based, "dedicated service relationship" configura-
tion at the sales units. To ensure that all employees in
JOHN OPEL such a complex organization would be willing to work
across units to build customer loyalty, Palmisano worked
o 0 to widen spans of support further. In a well-publicized ini-
—1— Span of control
tiative, he returned the company to its roots by reempha-
•p '\ Span Of accountability sizing the importance of IBM values such as dedication to
^/ \\ client success, innovation, and trust and personal respon-
i Span of influBnce sibility in all relationships. To increase trust within the
o ft 0
company and heighten the perception of fairness-neces-
Span of support sary actions before people will assume responsibility for
helping others - Palmisano asked the board to allocate
half of his 2003 bonus to other IBM executives who
JOHN AKERS
would be critical leaders ofthe new team-based strategy.

o 1 0
span of control
A Precarious Balance
Span ptaccountability
As IBM illustrates, complex strategies for large firms usu-
ally require that all the spans of key jobs widen, indicat-
Span of influence
ing high levels of both demand for, and supply of, organi-
o • o zational resources. But the potential for problems is great
Span of support
in any organization where all four spans are wide and
tightly aligned. A relatively small change in any one of
LOU GERSrNER, SAM PALMISANO them will disrupt the balance of supply and demand and
tip the organization toward disequilibrium. In the short
run.of course, the dedication and hard work of good peo-
Span of cohtrol
ple can often compensate for a misalignment. But the
Spsnof accountabilii^..
more dynamic your markets and the more demanding
your customers, the more critical and difficult it becomes
Span of influance to ensure that all four spans of organization design are
aligned to allow your business to reach its perfonnance
span of support potential. ^

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62 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

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