Name: Spencer Garcia

Master’s Thesis Proposal Meeting

Date: Friday, February 10, 2023

Time: 12:00 pm

Location: J.S. Coon 161 and Zoom

Advisor: Keaton A. Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Keaton A. Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Kimberly French, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

James Roberts, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title: Great Expectations: The Consequences of Employee Caffeine and Nicotine Use to Meet Leader Expectations

Abstract: Leaders typically have expectations for their followers’ performance. Performance expectations can serve to improve follower performance via the Pygmalion effect. However, when leader performance expectations become sufficiently high, they may become demanding for followers. To meet these demands, individuals may use compensatory behaviors, including stimulant use (i.e., caffeine and nicotine). Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that some consumers use specifically to augment their performance. While, these drugs may have some performance benefits, they are not without downsides. I call on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to elucidate the potential relationships between these variables. COR theory posits that individuals are motivated to preserve their resources when faced with potential resource loss and that the threat of resource loss is a stressful experience. Loss spirals are a specific pattern of resource loss proposed by COR in which losing resources begets further loss because an individual lacks resources to offset initial loss and continues to spend resources to mitigate the strain of continued loss resulting in increased strain (e.g., fatigue). This proposed study seeks to investigate the relationship between leader performance expectations and stimulant use through the framework of loss spirals, wherein it is proposed that individuals cope with performance expectations by engaging in stimulant use but at the cost of future well-being. Additionally, this proposal seeks to use experience sampling methods and multilevel path analysis to explore these relationships.