Mapping the work-life balance research landscape: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Since the 1990s, work life balance has been widely studied by scientists, so research results are increasing from year to year. Employees must not only perform effectively at work but also have a personal life that includes their family and community. To keep their human resources employed, organizations need to pay close attention to employees' ability to combine their professional and personal lives. Many working people currently feel that there is not enough balance between work and personal life in the workplace. The goal of this study is to determine how far the study of work-life balance has come. This study will give readers a comprehensive picture of the dynamics in play right now and reveal the state of the work-life balance literature. The importance of this research is to see the tendency of previous researchers in studying the theory of work life balance. In addition, it provides a systematic analysis of the work life balance literature using bibliometric analysis. A descriptive analysis approach is used in this study. The Scopus database is used for the data collection for this study. A total of 2,446 documents from 2012 to 2022 made up the database utilized to review this research. The VOSviewer application is used on the devices, and the data are exported in CSV format. This study will map the theory of work-life balance research, publishing trends, theoretical underpinnings, cited journals, often used research keywords and clusters in research groups. Additionally, this research offers a summary of the subject under discussion so that it can be updated in subsequent studies. According to Scopus analysis, the fields of management, management, and business research in the United States play the largest role in work-life balance studies. Analysis was performed with VOSviewer, where work life balance research has seen erratic developments in research papers. Various trends discuss work life balance using a bibliometric mapping approach. Researchers still rarely employ this research trend for future research to be able to use these findings as hints about trends. The few journals that published these studies in 2022 demonstrate that there is still a dearth of work-life balance research data.