This interactive workshop has three aims. First, it teaches best practice in how to conduct science mapping. Second, it demonstrates its application to a specific topic: self-determination theory (SDT) applied to work psychology (the past and present). Third, it guides the crafting of future research on work motivation using SDT (the future).

In the first part, we will explain bibliometric analyses, and specifically science mapping, outlining best practices and answering participants' queries. We will use examples (e.g., Carpini et al., 2017).

In the second part, we will show the results of a co-term bibliometric analyses on the work motivation literature. The sheer volume of SDT-related scholarship makes it difficult to fully capture its breadth and depth, which puts it at risk of becoming fragmented and siloed. Co-term analyses assume that words that frequently appear together within and across publications have a thematic relationship with one another (Donthu et al., 2021) to illuminate the theoretical structure and content of a literature. Science mapping was used to empirically examine whether the literature is characterized by progression — that is, an expansion toward new topics, settings, and conceptual innovations — variegation – whereby the literature is hindered due to a proliferation of terms – or by normativism – where a small set of dominant ideas and assumptions continue to be recycled with limited theoretical or practical advancement (De Bakker et al., 2005). We will show how the analysis allowed us to examine the current state of work-related SDT scholarship, identify parallel and siloed communities, and provide novel insights for theoretical development. Second, we considered where SDT has been to help project where it might go next using a temporal analysis (Carpini et al., 2017) that highlights theoretical advancements and emerging scholarly communities, provides insight into the developmental trajectory of the theory (De Bakker et al., 2005), and identifies research gaps.

In the third part, we will work with participants to identify future research avenues that can (1) address the research gaps, (2) are of interest to participants, and (3) address contemporary organisational issues such as new technologies and remote work. We will assist participants in developing hypotheses and crafting research plans and methods. This last activity will push for theoretical expansions that exploit SDT beyond how it has been used so far to optimise work motivation.