Does Happiness Really Matter? Exploring Employee Wellbeing Recent Research Trends: A Bibliometric Analysis using R

Abstract

The concept of wellbeing has been widely acknowledged as a national measure of productivity in both developed and developing countries. The health and wellbeing of an employee, whether physical, mental, or emotional, has a significant impact on the quality and success of a company. This study aims to elucidate the trend of employee wellbeing studies from 2012 until 2022. It provides bibliometric review to unravel the emerging trends in employee wellbeing research in the wake of mental health issues globally, and in doing so, ascertain the cohesions and disparities in these themes with respect to employee wellbeing approaches. The objectives of this study are to explore the most productive authors, papers, journals, countries, and affiliations used in the field as well as to identify and provide potential agenda for future research in this context. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using Biblioshiny, from Bibliometrix R package. Analysis of bibliometric data provides valuable understanding into the present and future trends in employee wellbeing. The most productive contributors, most productive countries, authors, and affiliations, and most cited papers on employee wellbeing were all included in this study. Through this, researchers may gain a new perspective and understanding of the issue to improve their research insights and focus. Furthermore, it also benefits organisations in ensuring the health and happiness of their employees and help to retain them. This study only uses the SSCI index in the WOS database for data retrieval on employee wellbeing. It excludes other indexes such as ESCI etc. Upcoming research may consider expanding by using other indexes and reputable databases. Further directions for future research can be gathered from this review's discussion of annual publication trends as well as authors who constantly publish highly cited papers, affiliations, and countries with the highest productivity levels.