Handmaid's Tale

A Tale of a Handmaid’s Oppression
The Handmaid’s Tale, directed by Volker Schlöndorff in 2017, is a Hulu original adapted from a book by author Margaret Atwood. It analyzes a society where resources, hierarchy, and traditional organizational structures are deeply engrained. Following a nuclear incident society has changed and the United State’s government has been toppled. The main character, Offred, works as a handmaid for a general and his wife. Her role is to act as a surrogate for the couple as the nuclear incident has made reproduction extremely difficult. The content of the show is dark demonstrating oppressive practices that can occur when the quality of life for workers is disregarded. While the show is fiction, it can teach organizations about damaging structures,

First, The Handmaid’s Tale can be used to illuminate traditional theorists’ beliefs. According to Katherine Miller’s Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes, these theorists argued for standardization, specialization, and predictability to increase efficiency. To do this, power was highly centralized and top-down communication practices were empathized. This show illuminates all these practices. It specifically demonstrates Fredrick Taylor’s Theory of Organizational Management. The four major tenants of this theory include a belief that there is one best way to do a job, proper selection of workers, importance or training workers, and an inherit difference between management and workers (Miller, 26-27). These tenants demonstrate that like other traditional theorists, Taylor believes in the centralization of power and thinks efficiency should be increased.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, these tenants are highly prevalent. Power is highly centralized, workers are viewed as replaceable, and the work is specialized. Throughout the show, handmaids are killed or sent away if they break the rules provided by higher