Exploring The Intellectual Structure of Mindful Leadership Research: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

This research identifies the primary areas and current trends in mindful leadership and proposes future directions for exploration. Based on the Scopus database from 2016 to 2025, a bibliometric analysis of 898 studies related to mindful leadership was conducted to identify and reveal current publication trends, the most active source titles, the top 5 highly cited documents in the leadership and management area, and the top 10 most influential and productive authors in the field of mindful leadership. We also examine the key themes and topics that emerge from co-occurrence analyses of author keywords in the mindful leadership literature. The analysis reveals that the most prominent cluster focuses on the psychological aspects of mindful leadership, with keywords such as emotional intelligence, stress, well-being, and mental health being prominently linked. Although research activity on mindful leadership is emerging globally, there is a notable scarcity of research and collaboration in Asian countries, where ninety per cent of current research activity is concentrated in Western countries. We recommend an in-depth analysis and propose potential research directions within the field of mindful leadership.