ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of ethical competence with the goal of developing it in students pursuing college degrees in public affairs and administration. It describes the classroom culture in which this method unfolds, providing ideas about and examples of how instructors might navigate the challenges they will inevitably encounter and, in doing so, introduce students to normative foundations of ethical thought. The chapter also describes four classroom activities instructors can implement to inculcate greater cognitive complexity in students as they relate the normative foundations of ethical thought to some straightforward dilemmas arising in their workplaces. Concurrently, as students consider the menu of rival principles, the work of completing the instrument challenges them to question and think about what they should include in their first statement of leadership ethics. This knowledge the normative foundations of public administration ethics enable students to generate the insight needed if they are to do something more significant than simply perceive and describe the dilemma.
