By Layer icon in the Layer Explorer dialog
By default, the properties of each object in 3ds Max are set on a per-object basis, that is, they're set to By Object. Using the Object Properties dialog 
General panel, you can toggle each of three different categories of object properties—Display, Rendering Control, and Motion Blur— plus object color, to By Layer, so that the object inherits settings for the properties from the layer to which it belongs. Alternatively, you can toggle all four categories between By Object and By Layer in Scene Explorer by selecting any number of objects, right-clicking one of them, and choosing By Layer from the Layers quadrant of the quad menu.