Mapping research on the subjective well-being of knowledge workers: a systematic enquiry deploying bibliometrics

Subjective well-being has been one of the organizations’ most significant matters of intrigue and concern over the last few years. This field of study has garnered considerable attention from practitioners, academics and policy-makers worldwide, especially during and after the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, no systematic review has been executed so far to capture the current state of this paradigm. We address this gap by employing a systematic, generative and integrative approach to pinpoint topical research trends and establish the future research agenda in the knowledge workers’ Subjective well-being domain. Further, the authors aim to summarize the current state-of-the-art and thoroughly assess the theoretical underpinnings, concepts, and latest advancements in the domain. A corpus of 172 articles from the Scopus database was rigorously evaluated in two stages. First, bibliometric techniques were used to identify the evolution, current state of the literature, and research clusters. Finally, the research clusters generated through bibliographic coupling were examined using content analysis based on the ADO–TCM framework to determine the future research agenda. This study offers an in-depth examination of the available literature based on bibliometric analysis, network analysis, and content analysis techniques. The study also identifies knowledge gaps based on content analysis of research clusters, highlighting potential research themes. By combining bibliometric analysis and content analysis to create a more comprehensive and systematic apprehension of the research topic, this work adds to the body of knowledge on Subjective well-being.