What makes an effective leader? American Civil War study provides crucial insight

What makes an effective leader? American Civil War study provides crucial insight

Team cohesion and people skills are often overlooked in management training. But new research highlights the vital role of frontline leadership, especially at the organisational bottom where low-level managers are responsible for implementing organisational-level strategies.

A new study Frontline Leadership: Evidence from American Civil War Captains by Andreas Ferrara, Christian Dippel and Stephan Heblich has shed new light on the critical role of frontline leadership and its impact on unit cohesion and performance. The team’s work focused on captains, leaders of 100-men strong companies which were the smallest organisational unit in the Union Army. These captains were the closest to soldiers with boots on the ground, responsible for executing strategies drafted by higher-ranking officers and generals.

Using data from 2.2 million Union Army soldiers during the US Civil War the researchers analysed weekly movements and behaviours - tracking desertion rates and leadership changes across 8,500 companies. This allowed the team to develop a novel measure of leadership quality based on a captain’s ability to prevent desertions during non-combat periods.

Their findings reveal that captains who excelled at keeping their units together during mundane or idle weeks were also more effective in battle. Units led by high-quality captains experienced significantly fewer desertions during major engagements, with desertion rates nearly 42% lower than those under weaker leaders. These results were not driven by unit composition, pre-existing relations between soldiers or with their captains, or by selection of good captains into certain units.

Significantly the study also shows that these leadership traits were not linked to pre-war characteristics such as wealth, education, or occupation. Instead, leadership ability emerged through experience and was often recognised only after the war—better captains earned more in civilian life and were more frequently described as heroes in postwar biographies.

The researchers also found that high-quality captains were more likely to die in battle, suggesting they led by example rather than avoiding risk. While some learning-by-doing effects were observed, the study concludes that inherent leadership ability played a larger role than experience alone.

Andreas Ferrara, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and CAGE Research Associate, comments on the research:

“Our evidence suggests that ‘learning on the job’ led to greater benefits in military situations. Increasing our understanding of Civil War dynamics shows that military leaders share many of the skills needed in modern day organisations. The value of frontline leadership should not be overlooked.”

The implications extend beyond military history. The authors argue that frontline leadership—where direct supervision and interpersonal influence are strongest—is just as vital in modern organisations. Their findings support calls for greater investment in managerial training focused on team cohesion and people skills.

"Even though research tends to focus on the famous CEOs, the typical store manager ultimately implements firm-level strategy because they are the ones in touch with the workers, so the interpersonal dimension matters a lot at that level.”

• Read the full research paper: Frontline Leadership: Evidence from American Civil War Captains