The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication established the General Robert Wood Johnson Program in Ethical Leadership to identify and help correct the causes of ethical lapses increasingly present in American life.

The program seeks to build on and perpetuate the philosophy contained in the Credo, a code of corporate responsibility written by Robert Wood Johnson, who transformed Johnson & Johnson into a major international health and medical care product company.

Key Results

The General Robert Wood Johnson Program in Ethical Leadership:

• Awarded grants to two individuals and one team of researchers during the 2006–07 and 2007–08 academic years:
  • 2006–07: Stephen K. May of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, received the first award of $10,000 for a project titled "Ethics at Work: Principles and Practices of Ethics Codes." (May is co-editor of The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility, Oxford University Press, 2007).
  • 2007–08: Jerry Goodstein and Amy Wharton of Washington State University and Mary Blair-Loy of the University of California, San Diego, received a $5,000 grant for a project titled "The Role of Publicly Communicated Corporate Mission and Values in Firm Decisions Regarding Pension Fund Changes."
  • 2007–08: Mark Schwartz of York University, Toronto, Canada, received an $8,000 grant for a project titled "Israeli Business Ethics After Enron: Are Codes of Ethics Making Any Difference?"
• Co-sponsored a workshop titled "Alumni Academy in Ethical Leadership," March 29–30, 2007, at the Pennsylvania State University.
  • Ten communications professionals from major corporations, media companies, associations and government agencies attended. Participants prepared and discussed complex case studies on contemporary issues in ethics and leadership.
• Collected oral histories from six major communications executives. The executives personify the underlying philosophies contained in the Johnson & Johnson Credo and the Page Principles, which were written by Arthur W. Page, a long-time public relations executive at AT&T.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided a grant of $750,000 to endow the program. The Pennsylvania State College of Communications provided additional support.