Map Changes and Theme Evolution in Work Hours: A Co-Word Analysis

Abstract

(1) Background: Work hours are the basic carrier impacting employees’ work–life experience and organizational performance, and employees have greater anxiety in relation to work hours as new technology requires an increasingly faster work rhythm. However, scientific research on this topic lags far behind the practice, calling to attention the need for research on work hours from the perspective of historical evolution; (2) Methods: The Bibliometric method is used to analyze the 6364 articles and their contained 77 high-frequency keywords related to work hours from the Web of Science published between 1901 and 2017. Additionally, an individual–organization–society integrative perspective was adopted to describe the map changes and theme evolution of work hours; (3) Results and conclusions: The hot spots of research at the organizational level changed significantly around 1990, with the theme of “long work hours” becoming the core issue in recent years. Studies on the individual level have gradually moved from physiological aspects to the issues of burnout and psychological distress. Research topics related to the social level are somewhat loose, and mainly focused on work–life conflict areas. In addition, the cluster analysis based on the high-frequency keywords classifies six research types according to their research themes. Based on these findings, future trends are proposed to provide theoretical and practical reference for future studies.

More work, better health? The moderation effect of employee-organizational psychological distance

“…Most research on work hours focused on developed countries such as the United States and Japan, while researches in developing countries were slightly limited. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that the number of work hours in developing countries is higher than that in developed countries (Liu et al, 2018), and the psychological harm caused by long work hours in developing countries was more serious than that in developed countries (Fitzgerald et al, 2015). Especially for the current China, studies have shown that overtime work by Chinese employees ranked among the highest in East Asia (Yamashita et al, 2016), and the issue of job-related time pressure among Chinese workers needs urgent attention.…”

Why Work Overtime? A Systematic Review on the Evolutionary Trend and Influencing Factors of Work Hours in China

“…At the macro level, the evolution of work hours and the research on its influencing factors were relatively weak, which made it difficult to understand the research status and evolution of work hours, systematically and comprehensively. Moreover, most recent studies on work hours concentrated on developed countries (12), such as some European nations (13), and Japan (14). Studies have rarely been carried out on developing countries, and have failed to explore the influencing factors in developing countries.…”

How Much Is Too Much? The Influence of Work Hours on Social Development: An Empirical Analysis for OECD Countries

“…However, most previous studies focused on the effect of work hours on the organization and the individual. Few have sought to understand this issue from a more extensive and comprehensive perspective [11].…”