My thoughts on CRM...having experienced some very 'old fashioned' Captains and a few captains in the rhs!
Come aspects of CRM such as learning effective communication are essential lessons that are not necesarily possessed by people with even the most advanced intellect/common sense/manners. How to ask a question and how to raise concerns appropriately are sometimes counter intuitive.
Learning the traps of our own human condition is essential.
Having said that I believe that CRM has been hijacked by the shrinks who see it as the path to riches via lucrative consultant contracts.
Over the years I have had to direct a captain not decend below MORA in IMC and fend off an F/O that wanted to follow a preceding Boeing, on the same airway but much lower, left and right of track because his radar was 'better than ours'...on my sector. Not only was I the aircraft commander but the CP & C&T on type...in the end it came down to 'ENOUGH'!!!
A cockpit with an inappropraite cockpit gradient...in whatever form that takes, is an unpleasant and unsafe environment.
It's just a pity that the VAST preponderance of companies view CRM as a necesary evil that only applies to pilots...and to a lesser extent FAs.
The old saw about those who deride the value of CRM the most need it the most applies equally to Captains, FOs and 'management'...even many management pilots.
Chuck