Although I agree with the consensus so far about this individual, here's some more food for thought:
It may not be as glaringly obvious to this person, how he is perceived by others -- I believe most people would not continuously knowingly behave like that, ref various cognitive and behavioral theorems.
With respect to the cockpit authority gradient, it is every bit as much the captains job, as it is the first officers, to make individual adjustments to maintain the optimum gradient. If the FO is being overassertive/authorative, the captain should IMHO make an effort to be even clearer on who is in command. My limited experience show me that the magic gradient only very rarely "just happens" -- it takes a conscious effort. At least as an FO I try to adapt my assertiveness to the captain. Don't know how the rest of you find this idea?
I think this is a really interesting thread, and I do know that I'm putting gasoline to the fire with my above statements, but I feel that stuff like this is really at the core of CRM, and I find this a very interesting case
