Strategic Management: Governance (Definitions)

"Addresses the need for a mechanism to ensure compliance with the laws, policies, standards, and procedures under which an organization operates."  (Dominic Cadbury, "UK, Commission Report: Corporate Governance", 1992)

"Organizational chains of responsibility, authority, and communication for executing measurement and control mechanisms to effectively drive the organization and enable people to perform roles their respective roles and responsibilities." (Murray Cantor, "Estimation Variance and Governance", 2006) 

"In general, a term that describes the task of 'making sure that people do what’s right'." (Nicolai M Josuttis, "SOA in Practice", 2007)

"Addresses the need for a mechanism to ensure compliance with the laws, policies, standards, and procedures under which an organization operates." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"System by which organizations [or systems] are directed and controlled." (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC 38500:2008 "Corporate governance of information technology" , 2008)

"The way we make and act on decisions about managing a shared resource for the common good. Resources can be people, processes, and technology." (Allen Dreibelbis et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"(1) Planning, influencing, and conducting the decision-making affairs of an enterprise. (2) The processes and systems that ensure proper accountability for the conduct of an enterprise’s business." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"A kind of direction from a directive describing the boundaries and direction for a business process." (David C Hay, "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map", 2010)

"The 'checks-and-balances' method that keeps risks in check; a review of measurements, mitigation methods, and risk monitoring results over a period of time." (Annetta Cortez & Bob Yehling, "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Risk Management", 2010)

"The discipline of tracking, managing, and steering an IS/IT landscape. Architectural governance is concerned with change processes (design governance). Operational governance looks at the operational performance of systems against contracted performance levels, the definition of operational performance levels, and the implementation of systems that ensure the effective operation of systems." (David Lyle & John G Schmidt, "Lean Integration", 2010)

"[...] simultaneously refers to the art of governing, of running an enterprise and of defining its strategy. This term denotes the process of practicing this art, as well as the means implemented for governing: decision rules, suitable information, supervision and checks, relationships nurtured between leaders, administrators, employees and shareholders, where applicable. By extension, governance can be expanded to cover a wider circle, including for example suppliers." (Humbert Lesca & Nicolas Lesca, "Weak Signals for Strategic Intelligence: Anticipation Tool for Managers", 2011)

"Consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes, and decision rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, corporate governance can involve policies on privacy, internal investment, and the use of data." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"The process of managing change. Involves steering or directing the content, the people who create it, and the systems that support it through both the day-to-day and long-term content lifecycles." (Charles Cooper & Ann Rockley, "Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy" 2nd Ed., 2012)

"The ability to ensure that corporate or governmental rules and regulations are conformed with. Governance is combined with compliance and security issues across computing environments." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"The process of establishing and enforcing strategic goals and objectives, organizational policies, and performance parameters." (PMI, "Software Extension to the PMBOK® Guide" 5th Ed., 2013)

"Governance is the oversight of process, such as strategy or content life cycle, including policy and management." (Elaine Biech, "ASTD Handbook" 2nd Ed., 2014)

"Set of measurement, management, and steering processes for a business domain or IS that provides the expected level of result." (Gilbert Raymond & Philippe Desfray, "Modeling Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF", 2014)

"The combination of processes and structures implemented by the board to inform, direct, manage, and monitor the activities of the organization toward the achievement of its objectives." (Sally-Anne Pitt, "Internal Audit Quality", 2014)

"Set of measurement, management, and steering processes for a business domain or IS that provides the expected level of result." (Gilbert Raymond & Philippe Desfray, "Modeling Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF", 2014)

"The framework for directing and enabling an organization through its established policies, practices, and other relevant documentation." (Project Management Institute, "Navigating Complexity: A Practice Guide", 2014)

"The process of ensuring compliance with corporate or governmental rules, regulations, and policies. Governance is often associated with risk management and security activities across computing environments." (Judith S Hurwitz et al, "Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics", 2015)

"The process through which an organization’s processes and assets are directed and controlled." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance" 2nd Ed., 2015)

"A broad term referring to the establishment of policies and guidelines, along with continuous monitoring of their proper implementation, by the members of the governing body of an organization." (Jonathan Ferrar et al, "The Power of People", 2017)

"Consists of the systems by which the board ensures that its policies are being effectively implemented. Usually this includes systems to monitor and record what is happening, to identify instances in which policy is not being followed, and to take corrective action in those cases." (Marci S Thomas & Kim Strom-Gottfried, "Best of Boards" 2nd Ed., 2018)

"Generally refers to the management of the business organization itself. Includes the company’s organizing documents, the records of its owners and managers, and the steps required to maintain the company in good standing with the state where it is organized." (Alex D Bennett, "A Freelancer’s Guide to Legal Entities", 2018)

"The mechanisms by which decisions about the [semantic] model and its development, application and evolution are made and executed." (Panos Alexopoulos, "Semantic Modeling for Data", 2020)

"Ensures that stakeholder needs, conditions and options are evaluated to determine balanced, agreed on enterprise objectives to be achieved; setting direction through prioritization and decision making; and monitoring performance and compliance against agreed-on direction and objectives." (ISACA)