ISO/TC 260 HR management and knowledge management – Terms and definitions

People in different organizations, countries and languages work together more effectively when the same words mean the same thing to all of them. Shared understanding of HR and knowledge management concepts enables clearer communication and stronger collaboration, which lead to improved outcomes. To support this, TC/260 develops terms and definitions for HR and knowledge management.

TC 260 develops its terms and definitions by consensus and publishes them in ISO standards, so that everyone who uses them (practitioners, managers, auditors, educators, translators, software developers and others) works from one shared vocabulary. A shared vocabulary makes HR and knowledge management comparable across organizations, and it makes the standards themselves easier to apply and translate.

TC 260 Working Group 1 maintains a termbase: a database of all TC 260 term entries published across TC 260 standards. The downloadable list above provides current, published TC 260 term entries in alphabetical order of the English terms. This list will be updated as new TC 260 standards are published.

All published TC 260 terms and definitions are also available in the ISO Online Browsing Platform.

Please contact the ISO/TC 260/WG1 (Terminology) Convenor if you have any feedback or questions.

Previous Versions

• Terms and Definitions of ISO/TC 260 Standards (updated July 2026)

• Terms and Definitions of ISO/TC 260 Standards (updated January 2026)