ABSTRACT
The Cafferty, DeNisi, and Williams (1986) paper marked the end of the first part of our research program and the beginning of the second. Specifically, the first phase of the research program had been concerned with the development of a model and the testing of several research propositions from that model, all dealing with the importance of the acquisition of performance information. After the studies demonstrating that there were identifiable patterns of acquisition, our attention moved to tying those patterns to actual appraisal decisions. But once that relationship was established, we did not continue to test other research propositions from our model. Instead, the second “phase” of the research program involved testing propositions and ideas that had been generated by the findings of the various studies we carried out in the earlier phase.
