Workaholism as occupational imbalance among educators: A bibliometric analysis of research in educational organisations (2008–2024)

Abstract

Workaholism—compulsive overwork that erodes work–life boundaries—can be conceptualised as occupational imbalance, particularly relevant to educators facing boundaryless responsibilities, emotional labour, and accountability pressures. Despite growing empirical attention across occupational groups, the intellectual structure of this literature within educational organisations remains unmapped. A bibliometric analysis was conducted of 61 peer-reviewed articles (2008–2024) from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. Publication and citation trends, co-citation networks, author productivity, source distribution, and keyword evolution were examined using the Bibliometrix R package and interpreted through Bradford’s and Lotka’s regularities. Publication output is episodic (annual growth 16.17%; 14.57 mean citations per document). The intellectual structure rests on a compact foundational core. Psychology dominates among contributing disciplines, while occupational therapy and health sciences remain notably underrepresented. Thematic emphasis has shifted from individual-level constructs towards organisational framings since 2020. Educational workaholism, understood as chronic occupational imbalance, is an underexplored domain to which occupational therapy’s conceptual toolkit on occupational balance and daily occupation patterns is directly relevant, indicating opportunities for occupational therapy-informed research and practice in workplace well-being within educational settings.