The Web of Inclusion [Hardcover]

Sally Helgesen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

The author of the groundbreaking The Female Advantage,  a revolutionary approach to management for the post-industrial economy. In her highly acclaimed book The Female Advantage,  Sally Helgesen showed how the innovative management strategies of women executives differed from and bettered traditional organizational models. The Web Of Inclusion represents a quantum leap forward.  Here Helgesen presents a fully realized vision of the postindustrial organization: the web of inclusion.  Most organizations are still structured on a nineteenth century model: rigid, hierarchical, forcing workers into cookie-cutter roles.  But the twenty-first-century economy is fluid, technology-driven, based on creativity and relationships.  For companies to thrive, they must build "organizations for everyone."  Inclusive, flexible, interconnected, technology-enhanced, and human-centered, webs of inclusion perfectly mesh with the ever-changing demands of the information age. Helgesen lays out the theory behind her provocative vision of a new style of management, then profiles five organizations that have achieved extraordinary success by adopting webs of inclusion: Intel, the Miami Herald,  the Anixter Corporation, Beth Israel Hospital, and Nickelodeon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Helgesen (The Female Advantage) here describes a developing "collegial" business structure for the information age, one in which the responsibilities and opportunities of all company ranks are flexible and even invite customer participation in product development. This principle of "inclusion," the author shows, enabled Intel, for example, in a marketing first, to promote its brand name and a new microchip component direct to PC consumer/users through the retail advertising of Intel's existing computer-building customers. Other companies featured in this engrossing study of New Age corporate relationships are the Miami Herald ("be completely open with your staff"); Boston's Beth Israel Hospital (info-technology puts power at the hands-on level); Anixter, "delivering mass-produced goods and services... on a tailorized basis") and the Nickelodeon cable TV network, which solved a reverse-inclusion cultural problem. Business and technical subjects often entail specialized languages daunting to the general reader, but in this important area of modern communications and work relations, Helgesen has got it exactly right.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Helgesen (The Female Advantage, Doubleday, 1990) has written a readable work on corporate structures. Using the popular analogy of the web, she describes shifts in the reporting lines of organizations as diverse as Intel and the Miami Herald. A former journalist herself, Helgesen writes about web structures that were developed to meet specific needs or to save a troubled company. As defined here, the "web of inclusion" seeks to draw in all people in an organization despite salary or rank, often centering on people with power beyond their position in the company. The goal is to forge a stronger yet more flexible workforce. Despite the fuzziness of the concept, Helgesen successfully presents the stories of the organizations she surveyed in the words of their employees. Her book is one of the better accounts of the frontline-oriented, bottom-up management style that is slowly but surely gaining favor in corporate America. Recommended for all public and academic business collections.?Randy Abbott, Univ. of Evansville Libs., Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Business; First Edition/First Printing edition (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385423640
• ISBN-13: 978-0385423649
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of ideas about creating fluid, flexible organizations, March 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Web of Inclusion (Hardcover)

Helgesen offers both principles and excellent, in-depth case studies of creating fluid, flexible and powerful organizations. She did a masterful job of finding organizations which illustrate differing aspects of "chaordic" organizations (a term coined by VISA founder Dee Hock). If you want to recreate an organization to be values-driven and adapt to ever-changing realities, this is a great resource. Of particular interest is a chapter towards the end on how the physical office space affects an organization. Kudos