Employee happiness in the tourism industry: a systematic review, synthesis and future research agenda

Purpose This study aims to provide a thorough examination of the current state of employee happiness, identifying key areas for improvement and informing strategies for future initiatives. Design/methodology/approach This study used a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine research on employee happiness in the tourism sector. This study was performed using scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews protocol (SPAR4SLR) methodology. Initial screening of articles ( n = 34) was done using Google Scholar and further process was categorized into the following heads: searching for pertinent articles in tourism journals ( n = 69); assessing the quality of the articles; performing data extraction from the articles ( n = 40); and conducting themes analysis. Findings Although employee happiness research has made significant strides, there remains a gap in understanding its dynamics in developing countries, where additional investigation is needed to uncover context-specific insights by proposing three themes: integrated workplace stewardship, human resource management (HRM) practices for health and mind, and HRM, empowering excellence through support. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the concept of employee happiness in a tourism context has not been studied through SLR. Moreover, this study has proposed novel implications and future scope based on themes selected from the study.