I got hired by PanAm, and started flying as 727 F/E in 1969, well before CRM concept was ever mentioned anywhere. Back then, we had both types of captains, either nice and experienced gentlemen and scholars, or morons and other idiots or tyrants who confused PanAm jets with Boeing 314 Clipper seaplanes, and just were waiting for their turn to become accident statistic.
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Besides line flying, I became an instructor at the Academy, and sometimes in about the mid-1970s, I heard about a United new training activity "CRM", also known as "ChaRM School", to teach the (aforementioned) b*stards, to behave as human beings, and F/Os or F/Es to justify no apologies when they opened their mouth if required...
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Eventually, also had to become a "CRM Facilitator", with "Intial CRM", was a whole day long (8 hrs) for new hires, and a 4 hrs venue for "Recurrent CRM". Have to admit, Initial CRM was well needed for some. But fact is, many pilots were far from needing CRM, it came naturally to them. So for me, as instructor I considered Initial CRM a must, but Recurrent a waste of time. Either the "guys" practiced it properly, or
will never change...
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I found CRM practice an important and inherant part of simulator training, as "Crew Coordination & CRM" satisfactory/unsatisfactory for recurrent trainng. In the USA, there is no such "additional qualification" (extra revenues for FTOs) as you have with JAR Multi-Pilot MCC, a concept always included for FAA Type Rating training.
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For me, CRM is a great thing, but too often a justification for F/O to question their captain's judgment. All I read in Pprune Forums nowadays, if a captain uses a different technique, it becomes "my captain deviated from our SOPs". My friends, could you please learn what an SOP deviation is, and what a technique is...?
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CRM... Are you happy...? - Well, if not happy, do not fly with that captain. I do recall that there were a few F/Os that would not fly with some captains. OK, granted, if one or two... but we once had a 747 F/O who had "7 (seven) captains" (yes) on his list of "will not fly with". When we investigated the situation, we found out that the captains had a lot of problems with that particular F/O, and was witnessed by a few F/Es of that crew. I remember one captain telling me, as I asked him, he answered, "dont worry, I can fly solo"...
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Happy contrails