My wife had a boss of their department that would challenge everyone over and over again finding the ones who had backbone and those who were squishes. This would go on for a year or more and most people hate the guy. What he wanted was to find the people who would challenge his devil’s advocate stances so he could assemble the management and supervisory crew that he knew he could count on. Not saying this is what he is doing but it makes perfect sense now that he is finding out who the swamp creatures are and who the creature hunters will be.
That makes sense.