Too many managers? Assessing Your Org Structure
Key Takeaways
Uber's layoffs followed an assessment of its org structure, which found too many managers, management layers and micro-teams.
Managers should have clear responsibility for coordination, decision-making, accountability, people development, and direction-setting.
There is no universal manager-to-employee ratio or span of control. The right structure depends on team experience, work interdependency, process maturity, judgment calls, and manager capability.
Executives should review whether each manager is meeting a genuine organizational need or simply carrying a title used for recognition or retention.
Effective management requires more than the right org chart. Managers need development, feedback, coaching, and clear accountability.
Organizations with micro-teams or unnecessary management titles should assess their structure and make difficult changes with transparency.
This isn't another scary headline about technology-driven job displacement. The real story is about organizational structure and objectives. On September 2, 2026, Uber announced it was cutting about 3,300 jobs, roughly 10% of its global workforce. Surprisingly, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi didn't blame AI or the market for these layoffs.
Uber considered a basic question. “Do we have too many managers?” They assessed manager-to-employee ratios, management scope and span of control. Then, they made some strategic org structure decisions.
Specifically, the announcement read: “We cut down the number of management layers by broadening manager scopes, particularly where we had 'micro-teams' of only 1-2 reports. In all, we've reduced the number of employees who sit 7+ layers from the CEO by 20% and the number of micro-teams by nearly 50%.”
Nine years of headcount growth and talent management had produced organizational depth at Uber, but they were seeking operational efficiency. When they took the time to assess team structure, they identified too many management layers. The increased coordination wasn’t efficient and fragmented ownership was causing problems. The devil was in the org chart.
Back to Basics: What is the purpose of a manager?
A functional management role exists to serve genuine organizational needs. Consider these four functions:
Coordination — synchronizing work across a group of people who can no longer reasonably self-organize. Below a certain size or interdependency, a team can align peer-to-peer. Past that point, someone has to own the whole to make sure the pieces fit.
Decision rights and accountability — someone empowered to determine tradeoffs (priority, budget, resourcing) and who is answerable when those tradeoffs aren’t working. Management concentrates accountability so it isn't diffused across a group without a specific owner.
People development — coaching, feedback, career growth. This goes beyond supervising output. Ensuring staff become more capable over time is a critical component for any successful organization.
Direction-setting — translating strategy or goals from above into concrete priorities for the team below, so individual contributors aren't each independently interpreting what the company needs from them.
If the managers in your organization aren’t explicitly responsible for at least two or three of these functions, then there is no organizational need for them.
Supervisory Layers: Ratios and Span of Control
Let’s get some definitions established.
Manager-to-employee ratio is the average number of employees per manager in an organization. Across industries in the US, this hovers around 1:10 and 1:12. If it’s 1:5 or lower, those titles are probably supplementing recognition rather than indicating need for coordination, accountability, or development. It may look like leaner, flatter organization, but often a bunch of micro-teams usually doesn’t meet the threshold for organizational need.
Span of control refers to how many people report to each manager. A wide span of control means more direct reports per manager. Typically this indicates fewer, broader management layers with a higher load of coordinating, decision making, and direction setting. Sometimes that means lower employee engagement. A narrow span of control means more people carrying the title "manager," each with a smaller team underneath them.
Each organization is unique. Therefore, there isn’t a specific ratio or span that is ideal. Returning to the four functions of management can help you begin to make an assessment. There are other useful evaluations as well.
Assessing Management Layers
When determining the ideal management ratio and span of control for the managers in your organization, executives can start by individually considering each manager and the reason they were awarded that title.
Are they actually functioning as a manager or do they have the title for some other reason? Did they start as frontline employees and get promoted to middle management because that was the only way to promote them? Are they overseeing a micro-team or more than five direct reports?
Does their work require ownership of a certain scope, setting direction for a team, being accountable for what it produces, or developing their direct reports? Or, is this really a mentorship role dressed up as management?
How does hierarchy serve their organization? Does it increase productivity in senior leadership or create more bureaucracy?
Other conditions executives should consider:
Report experience and autonomy — seasoned, self-directed people need less hands-on management, so the span can widen. Junior or newer staff need more oversight, so in that case, span narrows.
Interdependency of the work — if the reports' work is tightly coupled and needs constant coordination between them, the manager's span should be narrower. Independent work streams and task similarity support a wider span.
Systems and process maturity — strong documentation, tools, and standardized processes reduce how much coordination burden falls on the manager per report, which supports a wider span.
Frequency of judgment calls needed — roles that require constant manager sign-off or escalation need a narrower span than roles where people are trusted to decide and report back.
Manager capability — a manager skilled at delegation and prioritization can genuinely support more people than one who isn't, independent of the other factors.
Player-Coach management — for managers who continue to be individual contributors, optimizing the balance between how much time they spend as ICs versus how much time they spend managing others is important. Gallup’s research shows that managers who spend less than 60% of their time on actual management functions become less and less engaged as their team sizes grow.
Leadership should take an annual stock of these assessment questions and make adjustments based on organizational needs. Finally, they need to ensure that managers are supported in effective ways and not just left to figure it out on their own.
Meaningful Feedback & Development Are Critical
Once you’ve determined valid management roles, manager-to-report ratio and spans of control, make sure your managers have what they need to do their jobs well. Remember, if you’re concerned about retention you need to pay attention to manager quality. That includes capabilities and manager development.
Are your managers equipped, coached, and assessed on how well they lead? Does your company institute reliable accountability frameworks and processes? Is there a culture of supportive, constructive feedback and effective performance reviews?
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find an experienced leadership consultant who will help you craft and implement sustainable and valuable leadership development processes.
Next Steps
If you have micro-teams or if you’ve been using manager titles as incentives for talent retention, it’s probably time to assess your organizational structure. Change and growth are inevitable and making intentional adaptations is required for success.
Some leaders feel daunted by the idea of restructuring roles and org charts. They end up avoiding the assessment altogether. Even if you don’t have Uber's headcount, adopting their courage will benefit your organization. In the CEO’s letter to Uber’s workforce, Khosrowshahi also wrote "It's our job as leaders to make these difficult calls, and to give you transparency into our thinking and our decision-making process."
As a business leader, it is your job to make difficult decisions. The more clarity that process has and the more transparency you can provide will ensure that your decisions land well.
It is also your job to avail yourself of wisdom and assistance. Leaders who lead in isolation don’t fare well. If you want expert guidance, a reliable thought partner, and experienced assessment, seek your leadership consulting support. An astute leadership consultant or experienced executive coach can be an invaluable resource.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can executives tell if the organization has too many managers?
Start by examining what each manager is actually responsible for. A functional manager coordinates interdependent work, makes decisions about priorities or resources, accepts accountability for team results, develops employees, or sets direction.
If a manager isn't responsible for at least two or three of those functions, the role may exist for recognition, retention, or promotion rather than organizational need. A title doesn't make someone a manager. The work does.
Is there an ideal manager-to-employee ratio?
No. The right ratio depends on the work, the people doing it, and the systems supporting them.
Experienced, self-directed employees often need less day-to-day oversight, which can support a wider span of control. Junior employees, tightly connected work, frequent approval requirements, and immature processes usually require more management capacity. The ratio should follow the coordination and accountability the organization actually needs, not an arbitrary benchmark.
What is a span of control, and why does it matter?
Span of control is the number of direct reports assigned to one manager. A narrow span creates more management layers and can produce micro-teams with only one or two employees. A wide span reduces hierarchy, but it can overload managers when the work requires constant judgment, coordination, or employee support.
The question isn't whether a span is wide or narrow. It's whether the manager has enough capacity to coordinate work, make decisions, set direction, and develop people well.
Are manager titles sometimes used as a substitute for career development?
Yes. Some employees are moved into management because the organization has no other way to recognize increased skill, responsibility, or contribution. That creates a problem for both the employee and the business.
A senior individual contributor path, meaningful project ownership, mentorship responsibilities, or expanded expertise can provide growth without adding unnecessary management layers. Not every strong performer should become a people manager.
What should executives assess before restructuring management layers?
Review each manager's scope, direct reports, decision rights, time allocation, and actual contribution to team performance. Look at whether the work requires close coordination, whether employees have the experience to operate independently, and whether systems and processes reduce the manager's administrative burden.
Then assess management quality. Restructuring roles without supporting managers through feedback, development, and clear accountability simply moves the problem around. If the assessment is difficult to conduct internally, an experienced leadership consultant can provide an objective view of the organization and help build a sustainable process.
