Subjects evaluated hypothetical male and female applicants for managerial positions. Half required supervision of predominately female subordinates; half the supervision of predominately male subordinates. Females expected higher performance than males. Males and females favored applicants whose sex matched the subordinates'. Thus, the sex-role context, not merely the applicant's sex, may induce selection discrimination.

This study focuses on nine group leaders of matched engineering design groups. A significant negative correlation was found between the group leaders' technical competence and their managerial role adoption. A strong positive correlation between managerial role adoption and group productivity was obtained. It is suggested that engineers with high technical competence tend to reject the role of manager.