Engaging the Distributed Workforce: A Bibliometric Mapping of Engagement, Organisational Support and Autonomy in Remote and Hybrid Work Research (2000–2026)

Abstract

Purpose – Remote, telework and hybrid arrangements have moved from a peripheral benefit to a mainstream mode of organising, yet knowledge on how such arrangements sustain employee engagement remains fragmented across psychology, human resource management, public administration and occupational health. This study maps the growth, intellectual foundations and thematic structure of research linking remote and hybrid work with employee engagement and its enabling resources, namely perceived organisational support, e-work self-efficacy, inclusive leadership, workplace belonging, social connectedness, meaningful work, job autonomy and flexibility.

Design/methodology/approach – A bibliometric review of 4,310 Scopus-indexed documents published between 2000 and 2026 was conducted using the bibliometrix R package and its Biblioshiny interface. Performance analysis (publication, citation, source, author, institutional and country indicators) was combined with science mapping (keyword co-occurrence, Callon-based thematic mapping, trend-topic analysis, author co-citation and bibliographic coupling).

Findings – Output grew at a compound annual rate of 13.19%, with 82.6% of the corpus published from 2020 onwards. The United States, China, India and the United Kingdom lead production, while only 22.0% of corresponding-author documents involve international collaboration. Author co-citation reveals three intellectual bases: a job demands–resources (JD-R) engagement tradition with strong survey-methods anchors, a telework and work–family boundary tradition, and a pandemic-era future-of-work and productivity tradition. Science mapping identifies a pandemic-driven, health-oriented motor theme and a transversal remote-work and employment theme; engagement itself is split between a psychological "work engagement" vocabulary and a managerial "employee engagement" vocabulary. Relational and personal resources, including inclusive leadership, belonging and e-work self-efficacy, remain peripheral, whereas hybrid work, employee engagement, artificial intelligence and organisational culture form the current research front.

Research limitations/implications – The analysis relies on a single database and on lexical retrieval; polysemous search terms (e.g. "virtual work" and "flexib*") imported a distinct engineering stream that is transparently reported. The study proposes an integrative resource-based framework and a Theory–Context–Characteristics–Methodology (TCCM) agenda to guide future research.

Practical implications – Organisations designing hybrid policies should treat engagement as the outcome of a bundle of organisational, job-design and personal–relational resources rather than of location flexibility alone.

Originality/value – The study extends prior reviews that concentrate on productivity, well-being or work–life balance by positioning the full set of engagement-enabling resources within a single bibliometric map, and by exposing the conceptual fragmentation and resource gaps that condition the field's next stage of development.