Antoinette - having been both a service worker and a manager in an NGO environment for many years, the key to appropriate respect at all levels seems to be a mixture of good culture and effective systems. Managers, particularly senior and executive managers can have a disproportionate level of influence on culture - but their ability to behave in a disrespectful way should be limited if the systems are correct. A clear, consistent Code of Conduct that applies to everyone, regardless of level, can help. Even better is developing a quality management system that everyone plays a role in maintaining. There are many frameworks around but I quite like ISO 9001:2015 (which deals with effective governance and management). I hope that is useful.

Owning something does not mean being a good manager. Sometimes we miss-manage something that we feel we own it. For an instance, you are a community organizer and your perform based on the mandate of your agency and you get to use of it as if you are the navigator of the development of the community and then these community on the long run tend to realize that it is them who should manage their community not an outsider who are working for someone to help someone. We own nothing but if owning means everybody should be engaged and be consulted in the managerial process that is another story. Sense of ownership within the circle of management means a lot.

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