COL Jordon E. Swain
Director, Center for Junior Officers
Academy Professor/Associate Professor
jordon.swain@westpoint.edu
Biography
Jordon grew up on a small farm in Michigan and joined the Army in 1995 when he enrolled at West Point. He loves to golf, surf, travel, and teach. He has two wonderful daughters. Jordon and his girls enjoy "winning all the escape rooms", geocaching, and exploring our nation’s national parks and monuments (they’ve been to over 60 so far). Jordon is an identical twin who also enjoys beating his brother on the golf course and spoiling his nephew and niece.
Ongoing Research Projects
Brown, J, Owens, B, Swain, J, Strachan, M. Becoming a “Humilitary” in an Ideological Battleground: the Unintended Consequences of Espousing Foreign Values in an Organization.
Publications & Presentations
Swain, J. E. & Murray, E. D. (2020). Assessing leader humility. Journal of College and Character, 21(3), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2020.1781657
Swain, J. E., Kumlien, K, & Bond, A. (2020) Teaching theories of motivation with games: An in-class exercise. Organizational Management Journal, 17(3), 119-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/OMJ-06-2019-0742
Swain, J. E., Bond, A., & Smith, D. (2020). Looking back in order to move ahead as an authentic leader: A personal journey line narrative exercise. Journal of Leadership Education, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.12806/v19%2Fi1%2Fa4
Swain, J. E. Bogardus, J. & Lin, E (2020). Come on down: Using a trivia game to teach the concept of organizational justice. Management Teaching Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298119892588
Swain, J. E., Plenge, C, Cornwell, J. (2019). Put on the spot: Organizational justice and leadership decisions. The CASE Journal, 15(4), pp. 267-278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-12-2018-0125
Swain, J. E., & Korenman, L. (2018). In their humble opinion: How expressions of humility affect superiors' assessments of leadership potential in the US Army. Military Psychology, 30(6), 507-527. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2018.1503002
Swain, J. E. (2018). The effects of leader humility on the performance of virtual groups. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12(1), 21-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21552
Swain, J. E., & Young, L. (2018). General Patton and Lieutenant Winters: A contrast in leadership. The CASE Journal, 14(5), 541-549. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-02-2018-0033
Swain, J. E., Tuite, J., & Borland, J. (2018). Office space: A leadership challenge. The CASE Journal, 14(5), 593-603. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-02-2018-0032
Priest, R. F. & Swain, J. E. (2002). Humor and its implications for leadership effectiveness, Humor, 15(2), 169-189. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1515/humr.2002.010
West Point leadership. (Senior co-editor with Smith, D.). New York, NY: Rowan Technology Solutions, 2018.
Lemler, R, & Swain, J. (2021). “Military leadership: Purpose, direction, motivation.” In Morten Ender et al. (Eds.), Teaching and Learning the West Point Way. Routledge.
Swain, J., Spain, E., Bates, A., & Bowen, J. (2021). “Tapping feature films for classroom debates: Transformation or toxic leaders?” In Morten Ender et al. (Eds.), Teaching and Learning the West Point Way. Routledge.
Swain, J. E., Owens, B. P., Millen, M. (2019). Humility and leadership. In Smith, Swain, Brazil, Cornwell, Britt, Bond, Eslinger, and Eljdid (Eds.), West Point leadership. Rowan Technology Solutions.
Swain, J. E., Kimball, R., & Steinlage, A. J. (2019). Mentoring for leaders of character. In Smith, Swain, Brazil, Cornwell, Britt, Bond, Eslinger, and Eljdid (Eds.), West Point leadership. Rowan Technology Solutions.
Keinan, A. and Swain, J. E. (2011) The U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Harvard Business School Case 512-012.
* Note that the HBS case omits Jordon Swain's name on the top author line due to a change in HBS policy that prevents giving authorship credit to “insiders” of organizations. I was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at West Point when I wrote this case. My contribution is acknowledged in the footnote on the first page of the case study.
Swain, J. E. (with Owens, B, and Brown, J). (2021, August) The Humilitary? Paradoxical Challenges of Leaders Behaving Humbly in a Military Culture. [Symposium]. Academy of Management Conference.
Swain, J. E. (with Stork, E., Tabata, M., Smith, R., and Smith, D.). (2018, October 27) The challenges of teaching Authentic Leadership and developing authentic leaders. [Panel session]. The Annual International Leadership Association Conference, Palm Beach, FL.
Swain, J. E. (with Smith, D. Harris, P., & Soignet, D.) (2018, June 7). The role of transformative curricula in leader education and development. [Panel session]. Annual Conference of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS), Coastal Carolina University.
Swain, J. E. (2018, March). In their humble opinion: How expressions of humility affect supervisors' assessment of leadership potential in the military. [Poster presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Atlanta, GA.
Swain, J. E. (2016, January). Self-awareness and perceived leader effectiveness. [Poster presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), San Diego, CA.
Donigian, A, Schuck, G. P. and Swain, J. E. (2010, November 19). A teaching excellence award: Promoting reflection and growth for teachers at the collegiate level. [Panel session]. The New England Faculty Development Consortium, College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.
Schuck, G.P. and Swain, J. E. (2010, November 8). Humor and resilience in West Point cadets. [Paper presentation]. 18th Annual ARL/USMA Technical Symposium, Atlantic City, NJ.
Swain, J. E., Schuck, G. P., Geraci, J, Mitchell, M. (2010, September 26). Humor and resilience in extreme contexts. [Poster presentation]. Ninth Annual Human Performance in Extreme Environments (HPEE) conference, San Francisco, CA.
Swain, J. E. (2010, June 22). A collegiate level leadership course at West Point. [Roundtable discussion]. 20th annual Association of Leadership Educators (ALE) conference, Milwaukee, WI.
Swain, J. E. (2010, June 21). Evaluating the effectiveness of a leader development program at West Point. [Poster presentation]. 20th annual Association of Leadership Educators (ALE) conference, Milwaukee, WI.