Worry in managers: An inventory of job-related worries and correlates with job involvement and self-reliance

This report describes the development of the Worry Inventory for Managers (WIM), a 24-item measure of job-related worries in managers. After item selection by expert ratings, a sample of 138 managers rated each item for the intensity of worry, the extent to which they worry about it during work, and the extent to which they worry about it after work. In addition, measures of pathological worrying, job involvement, and self-reliance were administered. Factor analysis of the WIM revealed two facets of job-related worry, namely worry about (1) Organizational Processes and (2) Work Overload, of which the latter predominated after work. Job-related and pathological worry showed distinct patterns of correlation with the three factors of self-reliance, that is Counterdependence, Overdependence, and Secure Relationships. The potentially detrimental effects of worry both during work (e.g., performance decrements) and after work (e.g., recreation failure) are briefly discussed.