Studies which have investigated males' and females' attitudes and behavior in organizations have yielded apparently contradictory results. In some studies, individuals have followed traditional sex-role stereotypes; in others, they have not. A proposed explanation for these inconsistencies is that sex-role identification is a more important variable than sex. Individuals who adhere to the stereotypes may be highly sex-typed (masculine or feminine), and those who do not may be less sex-typed (androgynous or undifferentiated) in sex-role identification. One hundred-ten graduate students with jobs in the business community and 575 undergraduate business students completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory containing "masculine"--self-reliant, competitive--and "feminine"--sympathetic, shy--characteristics for both themselves and a "good manager." As expected, individuals' sex-role identifications significantly affected their perceptions of traits desirable for management personnel, while sex had virtually no effect. The study concludes that sex-role identification is a variable deserving of further attention, particularly when sex-related differences are examined. Also, graduate women revealed more masculine traits than feminine in their self-descriptions, suggesting that a masculine standard for management may nullify the femininity of women in or aspiring to management positions. (Author)