Tendencies of the doctoral theses on work engagement in Türkiye: a content analysis study

The purpose of this study is to conduct a content analysis of the doctoral theses on work engagement published by The Council of Higher Education (CoHE) National Thesis Center in Türkiye. This study is a qualitative method in which descriptive survey model is applied and the theses were selected via purposive sampling technique. Through this process 45 theses published between 2020 and 2024 within a period of five years were determined. “Theses Classification Form” developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. Data was analysed by content analysis technique. According to the form, the variables for the theses were classified in terms of; the published year, subject areas, universities, university types, language, method, data collection tools, sampling and sampling size. The findings were visualized via tables and graphs with percentages and frequencies. As a result of the analysis, it was found that work engagement has been a popular topic for PhD. studies for the past five years. Besides, surveys were performed in order to collect the data with quantitative method. Furthermore, the theses were significantly conducted in business administration area. In addition, the theses were mostly published in Turkish language in a majority of public universities. There is, however, relatively balanced distribution among universities conducting research on work engagement. Also, a majority of the theses were conducted on sector employees with a sampling size of 401 - 500 participants. Finally, some recommendations were made to be followed for further studies.