Span of control

Vytautas Andrius Graičiūnas was a Lithuanian American management theorist who published a classic study Relationship in Organization in 1933. He mathematically proved that a manager should not have more than four to five subordinates. He posited a formula which showed the number of relationships a manager can deal with, for a given number of reporting subordinates. Those relationships include (a) one-to-one, i.e. manager/subordinate (b) cross relationships subordinate/subordinate and (c) group relationships, e.g. manager/subordinate/subordinate. For 5 subordinates, it's 100; for 6, 222; for 7, 490. Don't worry about the numbers, just realise that the more people you have reporting to you, your ability to effectively manage them diminishes exponentially.

Management theory calls this the "span of control" and is used in the military for command and control functions and also in large commercial organisations.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has a cabinet of 25 or 26 (I couldn't quite figure it out exactly). There are duplications in terms of departments, for instance Baroness Chapman is Minister of State (Development) in the Foreign Office, so presumably reports to the Foreign Secretary rather than direct to the Prime Minister. There are still around 20 departments of state.

So the Prime Minister of the day has a bumper number of people formally reporting to him/her.

There's maybe an argument that a more structured way would enable their job to their job better. It can be argued - as it was by ChatGPT in our...chat - that the PM, as primus inter pares, allows greater autonomy to secretaries of state, but this manifests itself as a problem which is that, once a week, the PM has to answer for everything in government publicly in Prime Minster's Questions in the House of Commons. And is expected to know...everything.

There's another problem, which is relevant to the recent months - in fact arguably ever since the current government came to power. In comparable countries, foreign affairs and world diplomacy are carried out by the Head of State, usually President, leaving the PM to focus on domestic affairs - see France (not a great exemplar of effective government at the moment, I accept). This has been a major problem for Keir Starmer, facing significant global instability and an erratic US President.

So it's no surprise that Starmer is floundering. You'd have thought an experienced manager like him, who had a staff of over 7,000 when he was Director of Public Prosecutions, would be able to use that experience, but I imagine that was a better structured organisation and his job had a single, highly focussed mission. Government is different: not just about continuing an existing functionality; it's often about juggling, and deciding between, a set of bad options. Different problems, maybe requiring leaders with different characteristics.

I'm not saying Starmer is doing as well as anyone could; he's clearly not on top of things and there are serious questions about his judgement, e.g. Sue Gray.

I just think there must be better ways of doing things; we ask too much of our politicians.

Footy updates 2025/8

It's back to normal for our teams in the coming weekend. No more of the dreary international scene for another month. Ipswich are on the telly tonight, competing with Arsenal Women for my viewing time, Arsenal tomorrow competing with Charlton, Tottenham later. A viewfest!

I thought I should do forecasts. Here we go.

Ipswich 3 bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United 0

West Ham Women 1 Arsenal Women 3

Arsenal 3 Nottingham Forest 1

Charlton 1 Millwall 1

West Ham 2 Tottenham 2

bottom-of-the-table Peterborough 0 Wycombe 1

Whitstable 1 Chichester 2

Are Whitstable fans soft?

I forgot Whitstable Town, shame on me. Last mentioned in this blog for winning the FA Vase in May. For some reason they don't appear in my Flashscore feed, which presumably doesn't cover the lower level non-professional (or semi-professional) leagues such as the Southern Counties East Football League in which Whitstable plays in the Premier Division. They are currently 7th after six games, outside the playoff places. On Tuesday they won 3-1 away to Hollands & Blair, which sounds like a firm of solicitors.

Shout out to Football Web Pages, where I discovered not only this information but their comprehensive coverage of the complete football "pyramids" in England and Scotland, men's and women's.

Every football club which is registered with the Football Association (FA) is allowed to enter the FA Cup and clubs in "Step 5" (that's our boys) and above are automatically accepted. Whitstable entered this season's competition in the First Qualifying Round and won 3-2 away to Dulwich Hamlet, who are currently in 2nd place in the Isthmian Premier League, which is a "step 3" league - Whitstable would have to get two promotions to play at that level. So a terrific result. In the Second Qualifying Round they play at home to Chichester City, who are also in the exalted company of Dulwich in the Isthmian, on Saturday. In case the Whitstable fans who went to Wembley in May are not of the "soft" variety, it's at 3pm.

And if you go, write a report please!

Cornish nation urgent update

 Courtesy a reminder in today's Times:

Grant Cornwall nation status

I'm definitely not a petition signer. I don't think I've ever done so, although maybe in the idealism of my youth, who knows? I don't like following the crowd.

The government's petitions site has this:

Grant Cornwall nation status

We urge the UK Government to formally recognize Cornwall as a nation, granting it equal status to Wales and Scotland. This includes devolved powers, cultural preservation, and official recognition of Cornwall’s distinct heritage, language, and historic autonomy.

Cornwall has a rich cultural and historical identity, distinct from the rest of England, with its own language, Kernewek, and heritage. Despite being part of the UK, Cornwall's history as a Duchy reflects its unique status. We think granting Cornwall nation status would preserve its culture, promote self-governance, and could empower its people to address local issues.

No mention of flags or rugby.

When I checked this on my phone yesterday, over breakfast, there were 22,986 signatures, now 23,182.

Note: does "signatures" mean signatories? Could this be my next door neighbour voting 23,182 times? If I click on "Sign this petition" to find out, will I have voted?

I did it. There's a form. You have to be a British citizen or UK resident and enter your postcode and email address.  Doesn't seem foolproof but then maybe only fools would do it. I didn't continue.

Because the petition has more than 10,000 signatures, the government has to give a written response. The site says "Waiting for 44 days for a government response". Don't hold your breath.

If it gets to 100,000 signatures (unlikely as there are only two days to go), the "petition will be considered for debate in Parliament".

The petition was supported by Cornwall council, run by a LibDem-led coalition, by 53 votes to 22, as part of a fight to prevent a combined mayoral authority with Devon. Such an authority would access higher levels of devolution and funding, so I'm not clear what's bad about that.

Obviously this is all nonsense. Anything which keeps government on its toes is to be welcomed but this petition wouldn't do that, even if it succeeded in getting to 100,000 signatures. If it does happen, I want to be King. You get to hobnob with other monarchs and pseudo-monarchs, impose tariffs on Prime Minister Farage's England, live in a palace, get a free gardener, start a war, stop a war, get a Nobel Peace Prize. What's not to like?

What to do about Serbia

It has happened multiple times.

In 2007, UEFA fined Serbia €24,000 after fans directed monkey chants at black players during a European Under-21 Championship match against England.

In 2012, again against England Under-21s, Serbia fined €80,000, forced to play the next under-21 match behind closed doors, and several coaches and players banned due to racist chanting and violent scenes.

2013, Under 21s vs Belgium - UEFA ordered parts of the stadium closed, a “No to Racism” banner displayed, and a public anti-racism statement made by the captain, due to monkey chants.

2023 – Euro 2024 qualifier vs Montenegro - Serbian fans directed racist chants at Montenegro. The Football Association of Serbia (FSS) was fined €90,000 and the following home match was played behind closed doors.

June 2024, Gelsenkirchen - UEFA launched an investigation into alleged monkey chants against black England players, plus object-throwing and nationalist banners.

December 2024 – Nations League matches vs Switzerland & Denmark - Serbia’s fans tried to burn an Albanian flag in Switzerland and displayed illicit banners. UEFA fined the FSS €173,000 total (specifically for racist/discriminatory behaviour), banned them from selling tickets to their next two away games, and imposed partial stadium closures.

Enough.

England's men's team play in Belgrade tomorrow night. The England players have reportedly been discussing what to do if racist abuse is directed against their (particularly black) players. There's basically a choice between following UEFA protocols - basically reporting the incidents and the FSS gets more fines and stadium bans - and the nuclear option of just walking off the pitch and refusing to continue, which would probably mean they forfeit the match and lose points.

I don't believe any England fan would blame the players if they did that. Serbia has had 18 years of their supporters behaving like this and the FSS getting "punished" and clearly nothing has worked.

There is the option of the referee suspending, ultimately even abandoning, the match. Which would result in an enquiry followed possibly by the opposing team being awarded a notional 3-0 victory. It's in the regulations but I couldn't find any instance of it happening.

One more occurrence - tomorrow or later - should result in the Serbian national teams being banned from competitive matches for, say, five years. Otherwise nothing will change.

Let's hope nothing happens.