Hierarchy of authority refers to the number of managerial levels in an organization, and it is closely related to span of control – the number of employees reporting to a supervisor (Daft, 2007). Vertical complexity is a similar term to denote number of hierarchical layers. The term “span of control” becomes meaningful when managers of two organizations compared in terms of number of employees reporting to managers. Wide spans of control in an organization simply mean that there are few managers having responsibility of many employees. On the contrary, more managers have direct control over lesser numbers of employees in organizations that have narrow spans control. Therefore, it is possible to expect a tall hierarchy in organizations when spans of control are narrow and a shorter one when spans of control are wide. A preference of wide or narrow span of control may depend on several factors such as knowledge, ability and skill levels of the employees, degree of

standardization of work activities, ability of managers to control his or her subordinates. Span of controls in organizations is not the only factor directly affecting hierarchy of authority. Design perspectives of owners or managers can also determine the question of how hierarchic an organization should be. The correct answer is Choice C.