{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:56:38Z","timestamp":1754157398958,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":74,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"3\/4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,10]],"date-time":"2009-04-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1239321600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to offer a new requisitely holistic definition of business ethics (BE) as a crucial component of business cybernetics and practice. The present contribution considers a basic problem: how humans use BE to influence their business processes. Therefore, business is\/should be investigated from the viewpoint of ethics. Requisite holism of understanding and consideration of BE in business reality is unavoidable; it can (and must) result from findings and considerations of the interdependence between business practice, ethics, and BE.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>In this paper, qualitative analysis is applied on the basis of the cybernetics (e.g. especially business cybernetics), dialectical systems theory, and ethics theory.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Ethics is a crucial emotional part of human attributes. They can be viewed as the subjective part of the starting points of any human acting\/behavior process, including business. Thus, ethics (may) have\/has a crucial role in business cybernetics and practice as BE. To clarify and beneficially use BE, one must understand relations between business cybernetics and BE, between business practice and BE, and understand the diversity of content of BE in literature, etc. On this base offered here is an understanding of BE, a definition of the content of BE as a specific type\/part of ethics, and a view at source of BE content.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>Content of BE. Research is limited to hypothesis and qualitative analysis in desk research. Practical experience is considered implicitly.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>This is a step toward development of business cybernetics with a requisitely holistic approach founded on requisite wholeness of insight. A more specifically created and target\u2010oriented approach to cybernetic understanding and research of BE of business systems is encouraged.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper presents a very new approach, rarely found in main\u2010stream literature; a new perception and definition of content of BE.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920910944803","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,5,30]],"date-time":"2009-05-30T07:00:41Z","timestamp":1243666841000},"page":"581-595","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Toward a holistical perception of the content of business ethics"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Vojko","family":"Potocan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Matjaz","family":"Mulej","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b1","unstructured":"Armstrong, M. (2006), Handbook of Management Techniques, Kogan Page, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ashby, W. (1956), An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall, London.","DOI":"10.5962\/bhl.title.5851"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baumol, J., Litan, E. and Schramm, J. (2007), Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, Yale University Press, London.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.985843"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b3","unstructured":"Baumol, W. (1993), Entrepreneurship, Management, and the Structure of Payoffs, Cambridge Press, Cambridge."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b5","unstructured":"Beer, S. (1979), The Heart of Enterprises, Wiley, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b6","unstructured":"Bertalanffy, L. (1979), General Systems Theory, Foundations, Development, Applications, Brazillier, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b7","unstructured":"Boatright, J. (2006), Ethics and the Conduct of Business, Prentice\u2010Hall, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b8","unstructured":"Boonin, D. and Oddie, G. (2004), What's Wrong: Applied Ethicists and Their Critics, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b9","unstructured":"Bostock, D. (2000), Aristotle's Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bowie, N. (Ed.) (2001), The Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.","DOI":"10.1111\/b.9780631221234.2001.00001.x"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b11","unstructured":"Bowie, N. (2002), Business Ethics, Blackwell, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b12","unstructured":"Brooks, L. (2006), Business and Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives, and Accountants, South\u2010Western College, Mason, OH."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b13","unstructured":"Caroselli, M. (2003), The Business Ethics Activity Book, AMACOM, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b14","unstructured":"Chadwick, R. and Schroeder, D. (2002), Applied Ethics: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, Routledge, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b15","unstructured":"Cole, G. (2004), Management: Theory and Practice, Thomson, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b16","unstructured":"Cooper, C. and Argyris, C. (2000), Encylopedia of Management, Blackwell, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b17","unstructured":"Cooper, P. and Vargas, C. (2004), Implementing Sustainable Development, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b18","unstructured":"Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2003), Business Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b19","unstructured":"Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2006), Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the Age of Globalization, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b20","unstructured":"Crick, B. (1982), The American Science of Politics, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Crick, B. (2002), Democracy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford.","DOI":"10.1093\/actrade\/9780192802507.001.0001"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b22","unstructured":"Daft, R. (2002), Organization Theory and Design, South\u2010Western College, Mason, OH."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b23","unstructured":"Daft, R. (2003), Management, Thomson, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b24","unstructured":"Darwall, S., Gibbard, A. and Railton, P. (Eds) (1997), Moral Discourse and Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b25","unstructured":"Davies, B. (Ed.) (2000), Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b26","unstructured":"Ferrell, C., Fraedrich, J. and Ferrell, L. (2007), Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b27","unstructured":"Foerster, H. (1987), Cybernetics (In Encyclopedia for Artificial Intelligence), Wiley, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b28","unstructured":"Francois, C. (Ed.) (2004), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, K.G. Saur, M\u00fcnchen."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fredrick, R. (2002), A Companion to Business Ethics, Wiley, New York, NY.","DOI":"10.1111\/b.9780631201304.2002.00035.x"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b30","unstructured":"Gensler, H. (1998), Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b31","unstructured":"Gove, P. (Ed.) (2002), Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam Webster, Springfield, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b32","unstructured":"Hartman, L. (2004), Perspectives in Business Ethics, McGraw\u2010Hill, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Horgan, T. and Timmons, M. (Eds) (2006), Metaethics After Moore, Oxford University Press, Oxford.","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780199269914.001.0001"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b34","unstructured":"Jackson, M. (1987), Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers, Wiley, Chichester."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jenklin, P. (2004), \u201cDiscourse ethics in the design of educational systems: consideration for design praxis\u201d, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 237\u201050.","DOI":"10.1002\/sres.624"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b36","unstructured":"Jennings, M. (2005), Business: Its Legal, Ethical and Global Environment, South\u2010Western, Mason, OH."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b37","unstructured":"Kagan, S. (1998), Normative Ethics, Westview Press, Boulder, CO."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b38","unstructured":"Kohlberg, L. (1976), Moral Stage and Moralization, McGraw\u2010Hill, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b39","unstructured":"Lafollette, H. (2001), Ethics in Practice: An Anthology, Blackwell, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b40","unstructured":"Lafollette, H. (Ed.) (2005), The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b41","unstructured":"Lawrence, A. and Weber, J. (2007), Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy, McGraw\u2010Hill, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b42","unstructured":"Lovell, A. and Fisher, C. (2005), Business Ethics and Values, Prentice\u2010Hall, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b43","unstructured":"Mulej, M. (1974), Dialectical Systems Theory, FEB, Maribor (in Slovenian)."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b44","unstructured":"Mulej, M. (1979), Creative Work and Dialectical Systems Theory, Mladinska knjiga, Maribor (in Slovenian)."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mulej, M. (2007), \u201cSystems theory, worldview and\/or a methodology aimed at requisite holism\/realism of humans' thinking, decisions and action\u201d, Systems Research Behavior Science, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 347\u201057.","DOI":"10.1002\/sres.810"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b46","unstructured":"Mulej, M. and Kajzer, S. (1998), \u201cEthics of interdependence\u201d, in Rebernik, M. (Ed.), STIQE '98, ISR, Maribor."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b47","unstructured":"Mulej, M. et al. (2000), The Dialectical Systems Theory, FEB, Maribor."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mulej, M., Potocan, V., Zenko, Z., Kajzer, S., Ursic, D., Knez\u2010Riedl, J., Lynn, M. and Ovsenik, J. (2004), \u201cHow to restore Bertalanffian systems thinking\u201d, Kybernetes, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 48\u201061.","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920410514346"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b49","unstructured":"Potocan, V. (1998), \u201cSynergy and integration processes\u201d, Management, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 45\u201065."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b50","unstructured":"Potocan, V. (2002), \u201cTransition from ethics of interdependence to ethics of interdependence\u201d, in Hoyer, C. (Ed.), IDIMT\u20102002, Trauner, Lint."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b51","unstructured":"Potocan, V. (2003), Business Organization, DOBA, Maribor."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b52","unstructured":"Potocan, V. (2004), Operations Management, FEB, Maribor (in Slovenian)."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b53","unstructured":"Potocan, V. (2006), \u201cEthics of interdependence\u201d, in Hoyer, C. (Ed.), IDIMT\u20102006, Trauner, Linz."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Potocan, V. and Mulej, M. (2003), \u201cOn requisitely holistic understanding of sustainable development\u201d, SPAR, Vol. 6 No. 16, pp. 421\u201036.","DOI":"10.1023\/B:SPAA.0000005489.26260.05"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b55","unstructured":"Potocan, V. and Mulej, M. (2005), \u201cEthics of sustainable development in corporate governance\u201d, Global Business & Economics Anthology, Business & Economic Society International, Worcester, MA, pp. 323\u201034."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b57","unstructured":"Potocan, V. and Mulej, M. (2006), \u201cWhat is business cybernetics?\u201d, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 211\u20107."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Potocan, V. and Mulej, M. (2007), \u201cEthics of sustainable enterprise\u201d, SPAR, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 127\u201040.","DOI":"10.1007\/s11213-006-9055-z"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b59","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Potocan, V. and Mulej, M. (2009), \u201cBusiness cybernetics \u2013 provocation number two\u201d, Kybernetes, Vol. 38 Nos 1\/2 (in press)..","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920910930295"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Potocan, V., Mulej, M. and Kajzer, S. (2005), \u201cBusiness cybernetics: a provocative suggestion\u201d, Kybernetes, Vol. 34 Nos 9\/10, pp. 1496\u2010516.","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920510614786"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b60","unstructured":"Quinn, P. and Taleaferro, C. (1987), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion, Blackwell, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rosenthal, S. and Buchholz, R. (2000), Rethink Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach, Oxford University Press, Oxford.","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195117363.001.0001"},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b62","unstructured":"Ross, L. (1995), Cast the First Stone: Ethics in Analytic Practice, Chiron Publications, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b63","unstructured":"Shaw, W. (2007), Business Ethics, Wadsworth Publishing, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b64","unstructured":"Shea, G. (1998), Practical Ethics, AMA, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b65","unstructured":"Simons, H. and Usher, R. (2000), Situated Ethics in Educational Research, Routledge\/Falmer Press, London."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b66","unstructured":"Singer, P. (1999), Practical Ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b67","unstructured":"Stanwick, P. and Stanwick, S. (2008), Understanding Business Ethics, Prentice\u2010Hall, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b68","unstructured":"Trevino, L. and Nelson, K. (2006), Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right, Wiley, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b69","unstructured":"Ulrich, P. (1997), Integrative Wirtschaftsethik, Paul Haupt, Berlin."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b70","unstructured":"Vallee, R. (2003), History of Cybernetics (in EOLSS Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems), EOLSS, Oxford, available at: www.eolss.net (accessed March 15, 2008)."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b71","unstructured":"Velasquez, M. (2005), Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, Prentice\u2010Hall, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b72","unstructured":"White, J. (2005), Contemporary Moral Problems, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b73","unstructured":"Wiener, N. (1956), The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Doubleday Anchor, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022031220463017000_b74","unstructured":"Wilson, E. (1998), \u201cDie Zehn Gebote Liegen in den Genen \u2013 Das biologische Fundament der Moral\u201d, Zeitfragen, Vol. 12\/13 No. 211, p. 85."}],"container-title":["Kybernetes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/03684920910944803","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684920910944803\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684920910944803\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T23:53:36Z","timestamp":1753401216000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/k\/article\/38\/3-4\/581-595\/451341"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Mian\u2010yun","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,10]]},"references-count":74,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3\/4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,10]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/03684920910944803"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/03684920910944803","relation":{},"ISSN":["0368-492X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0368-492X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,10]]}}}