Defined terms · 3.2 Governance roles
Term 3.2.4
governing body
Our statement of the draft's definition, what the term does in the guidance, and how to use it when you map a controlled group.
What the draft defines
The person or group of people with ultimate accountability for the whole organization. Every organizational entity has one, whether or not it is formally established.
This is our statement of the public preview, not a quotation. The term itself stays verbatim; the definition is paraphrased and checked for overlap before it ships.
Why the term is in the draft
The draft adopts the ISO 37000 term with a modification: it removes a reference that could confuse a governing body with a group. The note matters: a board of directors, a supervisory board, a sole director, joint directors or trustees all qualify, and an entity without a formal board still has a governing body in the person who is accountable.
What to do with it in the group
Every row of the boundary map needs the governing body named. For a controlled entity with a nominee board, record who the directors are accountable to in practice as well as in form.
Record the term in the evaluation glossary and use it consistently in the boundary map, the board paper and the report. A group that uses three words for the same role makes its own evaluation harder to read, and the draft's definitions are the cheapest common language available.
Three checks before the term goes in the board paper
- Same word, same meaning. Check that the instrument which gives the controller its right uses this term in the same sense. Where it uses a different word, record the mapping in the glossary rather than switching between them.
- One owner. Name the board or group function that decides what the term means for this group. A definition without an owner drifts the first time two entities interpret it differently.
- A dated example. Put one real example beside the definition: an entity, a decision or a document. A term that cannot be illustrated in the group's own facts is not yet in use.
The other terms in Governance roles are worth reading together, because the definition of one often depends on another.
Terms in the same group
Source for this page
- ISO/DIS 37014 free OBP preview. The foreword, introduction, scope, normative references, terms and definitions and the full table of contents, which ISO publishes for free. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ISO/DIS 37014 official record. The designation, title, edition, committee, ICS, stage, stage date, page count, price and abstract. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ISO 37000:2021, Governance of organizations, Guidance. The published text of ISO 37000:2021, which supplies the eleven governance principles and the seven governance conditions the model measures, and the vocabulary the draft adopts.
Retrieved 2026-10-21. The requirement above is our statement of the clause in our own words; the official text is linked so you can check it.