All 35 requirements · Governance maturity aspects
Model requirement 4.2
Governance behaviour
What ISO 37004:2023 asks at 4.2, in our own words, and how it reads inside a controlled group. The draft's public contents heading for it is 4.2 Governance behaviour.
What the model asks
Governance behaviour is how the governing body goes about applying a principle. It is a matter of judgement, but six features can be seen when a body governs in the way ISO 37000 suggests: adoption (it commits to taking up ISO 37000); understanding (it grasps why ISO 37000 matters to the organization); application (it puts ISO 37000 into practice and can describe what doing so has been like); analysis (it compares how it applies the standard with leading practice and explains what outcomes it is aiming for); evaluation (it evaluates how it applies the standard); and improvement (it explains how it plans and carries out corrective action and improvement).
What it means when one board controls another
Behaviour is rated on both boards. The controller's board is judged on how it applies the principle across the group, and the entity board on how it applies it inside its own organization while staying within the group direction. The draft's concern is a capable entity board that has stopped exercising judgement, and only a separate rating shows it.
Evidence an evaluator asks for
A maturity rating is a claim about how the group governs. The evidence is what proves it operated. Keep both, and keep them together.
- Governance behaviour: Evidence of each of the six features in board records and interviews
Where evaluations commonly find gaps
- Adoption claimed with no ability to explain the rationale or the application
How this requirement enters the rating
This unit supplies the evidence for the behaviour aspect. Rate it on the six-point scale, cite the record that shows it operated in the period, and read the aspect page before you assign a level. The level descriptions for this aspect are on /aspects/behaviour/.
It carries 1 evidence item and 1 common gap in the model. One item is enough only if it is the artefact that proves the practice operated, not a policy that says it should. The group application on this page is ours; the requirement and evidence are the model's, stated in our own words.
Requirements that sit beside it
Source for this page
- ISO 37004:2023, Governance of organizations, Governance maturity model, Guidance. The published text of the organizational governance maturity model, which the draft applies to controlled groups. Supplies the three aspects, the measurement framework, the six-point scale, the dimensions and the 35 model requirements stated on this site.
- ISO/DIS 37014 official record. The designation, title, edition, committee, ICS, stage, stage date, page count, price and abstract. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- 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.
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.
Note on the draft: The requirement, evidence and gaps on this page are read from ISO 37004:2023, which the draft states it builds on. The draft's own clause body is not public, so this page does not state it. The clause reference at the top is the draft's public contents heading that this requirement sits under.
The maturity kit, USD 299 one off. The 35-requirement register, the 54-cell maturity worksheet, the evidence list and a dated plan, as PDF, CSV and XLSX.