De-layering and the Elimination of Middle Management: Span-of-Control Transformations

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@article{1724239,
      author = {Arjun Chaturvedi},
      title = {De-layering and the Elimination of Middle Management: Span-of-Control Transformations},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2025},
      volume = {8},
      number = {11},
      pages = {2722-2736},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1724239.pdf},
      abstract = {Corporate restructuring programs since 2023 have again promised that removing management layers and widening spans of control will speed up decisions. This article asks whether flattening improves operational decision latency or degrades project execution and middle-tier governance. It draws on Mintzberg’s account of organizational configuration, span-of-control optimization, Galbraith’s information processing theory and research on organizational change resistance, and adds a descriptive archival comparison of restructuring disclosures by Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Salesforce and Amazon for 2022–2024. The filings document restructuring costs and workforce reductions with reasonable precision, but only Meta discloses direct evidence of management-layer removal, and none reports comparable measures of decision latency, project execution or middle-management governance. The theoretical argument is that flattening tends to speed up routine, well-structured decisions while slowing cross-functional decisions and weakening the translation, coordination, control, development and knowledge functions that middle managers perform. The net result depends less on how many layers are removed than on which functions are removed with them. The article closes with practical principles: decide which functions to keep before cutting layers, match spans to the work, build lateral coordination and controls before removing vertical relays, protect the leadership pipeline, and measure decision latency rather than cost alone.},
      keywords = {de-layering; span of control; middle management; organizational design; restructuring; decision latency},
      month = {May},
  }