I'm going to reply to myself with a counter-argument. I just remembered the "No Asshole Rule," which is a great book with similar themes. I think there's a diff

I'm going to reply to myself with a counter-argument. I just remembered the "No Asshole Rule," which is a great book with similar themes. I think there's a difference between someone who is simply an asshole, and someone who is tenacious and sometimes a jerk to management (which the OP article seems to show) and disagrees openly. The latter might be an asset, the former is almost always a net negative. The point is, you have to evaluate these situations on their merits. If someone really is dividing the company and producing a negative effect, then obviously you need to deal with that in some way. But if they're not destroying the culture (indeed most are adding to it in some way if they care about the company and work hard), then it's not a cut-and-dry decision. However, the No Asshole Rule makes some very good points along these lines, so perhaps there is merit to the idea of avoiding jerks at any costs from the beginning.