Turnover in the public sector: a bibliometric analisys of studies in Scopus and Web of Science database from 2015 to 2024

Understanding the factors that influence turnover intention in the public sector is essential for providing organizations with strategic indicators. Given the scarcity of systematic reviews on the subject, this study maps the scientific production of articles on the turnover intention of civil servants in the public sector in the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases between 2015 and 2024 through bibliometric analysis, conducted with the RStudio software and the Bibliometrix package via Biblioshiny, and identified 449 articles. These studies were examined in terms of journal metrics, citations, authorship, collaboration networks, institutions, countries and emerging trends. The results reveal a significant growth in publications over the last decade, peaking between 2020 and 2022. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health, engagement and satisfaction of civil servants may be relevant to the number of researchers on the subject. However, despite the quantitative progress, the literature is still fragmented and has low academic visibility, with only 16% of articles published in high-impact journals and with few researchers. In this scenario, the United States, China and Brazil have emerged as leaders in research in the area. Analysis of the keywords revealed a predominance of themes such as “job satisfaction”, “performance”, “turnover intention” and “commitment”, reinforcing the need to re-evaluate policies to reduce turnover intetions and reinforce the employee engagement in the public sector.