Graiciunas’ Principle in the Control Process of Public Networks: The Case of Italian Local Governments

The Graiciunas’ span of control concerns the number of subordinates that a manager can control and we want to discuss the extension of this concept, traditionally referred to organizational design, to the evolutionary processes going on in Local Governments. The global crisis demonstrated that most control systems sometimes work out of control and this topic increased with the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) revolution. Public organizations, with their increasing interconnection, are part of this process, owing to the diffusion of ICT in large networks based not only on the exchange of information but also on decisional processes making public administrations a whole system of governance and services. At the same time problems are growing in the control of these networks and their management has to face a rising complexity in the monitoring of performances. The paper wants to expose and discuss, examining some cases from the Italian Reform of Local Governments, the tight link existing among the Graiciunas’ principle and the rising role of information in the control of public networks. From a practical point of view this perspective opens new possibilities in the evaluation of network performances and for a new approach in the restructuring of Local Governments expressing innovative practices and best performances.