Many organizations’ policies, values statements, and codes of conduct cover workplace behavior and can help advance dignity in a structural way. But they don’t exist only on the pages or screens on which they appear. They are given practical life based on how colleagues work with one another, how managers lead teams and signal the importance of the policies, and how accountability is demonstrated. Organizations live up to the values underlying their policies when they center them and help teams understand them in the day-to-day press of work. By doing that, they deepen psychological safety, fairness, inclusion, and other elements of honoring dignity.

The manager is on the front lines of ensuring policy awareness, implementation, adherence and accountability. Likewise, the manager, who sits in a position of power and influence, must model the values the organization prioritizes and the behaviors it expects. Workplace statements about dignity or related values, behavior policies, and inclusion commitments will fall flat if they are not given consistent life by managers in their day-to-day behaviors and interactions. And dignity will suffer.

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