Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of Global Research on Employee Engagement

Abstract

Over the past few years, employee engagement has gained significant attention due to its positive impact on various organizational indicators such as job satisfaction, commitment, performance, productivity, and profitability. The aim of this study is to conduct a thorough analysis of existing research on employee engagement. To accomplish this aim, 786 articles concerning employee engagement indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) between the years 2002 and 2022 were analyzed using bibliometric analysis methods. The VOSviewer program was employed to conduct citation, co-citation, co-authorship, and co-occurrence analysis. The study identified the leading countries, institutions, authors, journals, and scientific publications on the topic and shed light on current research patterns and future research avenues. The results demonstrate that the most productive country is the USA, the most productive institution is the University of Louisville, the most productive author is Brad Shuck, and the most productive journal is Sustainability. The current trend of research involves exploring the antecedents (e.g., corporate social responsibility, perceived organizational support, organizational culture, work–family balance) and consequences (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee performance, organizational citizenship behavior) of employee engagement. However, further research is necessary to explore the impact of various leadership styles, digital technologies, and new ways of working on employee engagement.

Do psychological capital and transformational leadership make differences in organizational citizenship behavior?

“…The fifth hypothesis was therefore accepted. This statement was confirmed by a prior study that work engagement can increase the contribution by doing more OCB [23,26].…”

“…OCB is voluntary employee behavior that helps the organization function without difficulty [21]. OCB is independent individual behavior since the formal reward system does not directly or openly acknowledge it and supports organization effectiveness [23]. OCB, also known as extra-role behavior, occurs when employees go beyond their job descriptions for intrinsic reasons [11].…”

“…Work engagement is a concept that shows the commitment of cognitive, mental, and physical energy to work with someone who tends to be very energetic and motivated to work extra and is more likely to increase their contribution by doing more OCB [26]. Work engagement has been demonstrated to be a constant and robust predictor of OCB in a recent study [23]. This investigation has advised that studies be conducted to conclude the causal association between work engagement and OCB.…”

“…[15]. Those factors include psychological capital [18,19], transformational leadership [20,21], and work engagement [22,23]. Other researchers have revealed that work engagement mediates the influence of psychological capital on OCB [1].…”

Analysing Research Patterns In Employee Motivation and Performance A Bibliometric Perspective

“…Metrics like the "h-index" and "g-index" gauge the impact and influence of highly cited and influential publications. These citation metrics are valuable for assessing research impact, identifying future research areas, and evaluating scholarly contributions (Agarwal et al, 2016;Britt & Greene, n.d.;Kişi, 2023;Gunashekar et al, 2015). Table 12 presents a compilation of significant scholarly works produced by multiple academicians, along with pertinent information such as the title, publication year, number of citations, and average number of citations per year Gardner has received a total of 583 citations, resulting in an annual average of 30.68 citations.…”