Forgetting in the workplace: attributions and recommendations for young and older employees

Preceivers assumed the role of manager in a hypothetical company that had either high or low bottom-line pressure. Then perceivers made attributions for a young or old, male or female, subordinate target employee's memory-related performance problems, predictions about future problems, and recommendations about urgency of action and type of action necessary. Target age, target gender, and bottom-line pressure had no effect on attributions. However, when under high bottom-line pressure, perceivers had greater expectation that performance problems would continue, felt greater urgency for immediate action, and were less likely to recommend training when target employees were old than when they were young.