Employee Happiness In Public Service Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review
Keywords:
Employee happiness, public sector; psychological capital; public service motivation; work well-being; systematic literature reviewAbstract
This study systematically synthesizes research findings on employee happiness within public service organizations and maps future research directions through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) based on the PRISMA protocol, supported by bibliometric analysis. Literature searches were conducted in the Scopus database up to October 22, 2025, using the keywords “employee happiness” and “public sector.” Of the 53 identified articles, 43 met the inclusion criteria and were subjected to in-depth analysis. Bibliometric mapping revealed three major research clusters: (1) positive psychology and work motivation; (2) organizational context and the public sector; and (3) well-being and life satisfaction. Conceptually, employee happiness in the public sector is shaped by psychological capital, organizational support, and public service motivation (PSM), which together maintain the balance between job demands and job resources, in accordance with the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model. Empirically, employee happiness serves as a mediating mechanism linking HRM practices to service excellence, ultimately contributing to improved citizen satisfaction and organizational performance. These findings underscore that employee happiness is not a coincidental outcome but a strategic product of a humanistic, participatory, and value-based public human resource management system. Theoretically, this review strengthens the integration of positive psychology theory, the JD–R framework, and PSM within the public bureaucracy context. Practically, it offers implications for developing well-being-oriented public HR policies and designing human-centered work systems. Moreover, the study identifies research gaps related to Southeast Asian contexts and the emerging issue of digital well-being in the era of e-bureaucracy. Future research should address these gaps through longitudinal and mixed-method approaches to advance an evidence-based foundation for employee well-being policy in the public sector.
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