The demand for managers with strong technical skills has led to increased interest in the selection and development of persons who have the potential to be successful managers. To learn more about early identification of persons possessing aptitude to manage, 82 engineering and science students completed a questionnaire describing behaviors they felt were related to five management role dimensions. Their responses were scored by two trained interviewers using behaviorally based scoring guides. One year later, 21 of the students completed a management development program and were evaluated on their performance by their peers and by the program administrator. Correlations between the scored self reports (termed Referenced Assessment) and the performance scores indicated that the Referenced Assessment scores were not predictive of the interim criteria assessed. These findings suggest that the Referenced Assessment measures should not be used to assess management potential. The underlying role model and the potential for the objectively scored self assessment methodology suggest that more research be done on the self-assessment methodology and more work be done on the development of a managerial role model. (Author/JAC)