The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has circulated a proposal for a new field of activity on organizational governance. As the U.S. member body to ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is inviting interested stakeholders to comment on the proposal by close of business July 1.

According to the proposal, which was submitted by the British Standards Institution, “governance” can be defined as a “system by which the whole organization is directed, controlled, and held accountable to achieve its core purpose over the long term.”

The standardization of organizational governance includes aspects of accountability, direction, and control, which can include principles of governance, anti-bribery, conflict of interest, due diligence, whistleblowing, compliance, remuneration structures, and external reporting.

A technical committee focused on this subject area would develop and maintain standards applicable for use by all organizations to improve the effective delivery of governance.

The proposal also recognizes that, although interrelated, there is an important distinction between “management” and “governance.” Although management can be considered as the act of bringing people together to accomplish objectives, and using resources in an efficient, effective, and risk-aware manner, governance deals with the accountability of the whole organization to all of its stakeholders and helps to ensure the whole organization fulfills its purpose.

Work in this area would be applicable to organizations of all types and sizes, including public or private, listed or unlisted, not-for-profit or for-profit.

Interested stakeholders are invited to review the proposal, which includes related standards and a listing of relevant countries where the subject of the proposal is important to their national commercial interests.

Comments can be submitted to ANSI Senior Director of International Policy Steve Cornish at scornish@ansi.org by close of business July 1.

Based on the comments, the ANSI ISO Council will be asked to approve an ANSI position and the comments to be submitted to ISO before its voting deadline of August 13.

Click here to view ANSI’s explanatory information document which outlines the process of developing U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC.