If Approvers are not listed for a policy, to which state does the policy proceed?

When a policy does not have any approvers assigned to it, it automatically proceeds to the Published state. This is because the workflow design in ServiceNow for risk and compliance management allows for policies to be published without requiring formal approval if approvers are not designated. Therefore, the policy can still be made available and accessible for implementation, allowing other users to engage with it actively.

In the context of governance, risk, and compliance, this can help streamline workflows and ensure that policies can be adopted and referenced, even if they haven't gone through a traditional approval channel. This is particularly useful in scenarios where rapid policy development and dissemination are necessary, enabling organizations to act quickly on evolving risks or compliance requirements.

In contrast, the other states mentioned would imply different conditions: retiring a policy indicates it is no longer active; cancelling a policy means it has been deemed unnecessary or invalid; and a policy cannot be in the approved state without having approvers indicated and undergoing the appropriate review process.