The profession has changed. Now it has Standards to match.

The administrative management role has been transformed. Our members now sit at the centre of AI adoption and digital operations, hybrid working, data governance, sustainability reporting, and organisational resilience — and the market has been asking for a common reference point: employers want to know what good looks like, professionals want a clear map of career progression, and educators need a benchmark to build against. Today the Institute answers that need with the IAM Professional Standards for Administrative Management (IAM-PS-2026-001) — a unified statement of excellent practice, from first professional role to the boardroom.

The Standards define seven Competency Domains, four assessed Career Stages aligned to our membership grades, and nine Professional Values — brought together in a Progression Matrix that maps the whole professional journey, alongside the IAM Code of Ethics and our CPD framework. Two informative annexes complete it: what competence looks like in each domain at each Career Stage, and the international standards and frameworks most relevant to each.

For readers with limited time, the Lite Edition sets out the whole framework — all seven domains, the four Career Stages and the complete Progression Matrix — in fifteen pages.