On this thread on leadership the question came up as to why do people like the so-called “screamers” get promoted? Or hired in the first place for that matter.
In my experience a crew that is made up of mariners that are technically competent but have poor skills when it comes to cooperation with other crew members are similar to dysfunctional families.
The similarity is that the crew likely will function adequately as long as the situation they face is routine. If a so-called stressor is encountered the crew may fail or perform at a low level.
The stressor could be an emergency, a breakdown or something as simple as a schedule change that disrupts the routine or a crew change that adds incompetent or disruptive crew members.
From Wikipedia:
A common misperception of dysfunctional families is the mistaken belief that the parents are on the verge of separation and divorce. While this is true in a few cases, often the marriage bond is very strong as the parents’ faults actually complement each other. In short, they have nowhere else to go. However, this does not necessarily mean the family’s situation is stable. Any major stressor, such as relocation, unemployment/underemployment, physical or mental illness, natural disaster, etc., can cause existing conflicts affecting the children to become much worse