Exploring the Dreadful Agony and Combating the Hideous Shades of Workplace Loneliness

Scholars have explored the issue of loneliness and its impact on individuals and society for more over half century; yet, from a theoretical standpoint, the intellectual stance of workplace loneliness (WL) is nascent, having arisen in the previous decade. Despite several studies highlighting the rising frequency of WL and its harmful effects on individual and organizational performance, there has been a lack of scholarly effort devoted to analyzing the existing literature in this topic, resulting in a fragmented body of empirical insights. This paper fills a gap in the literature by doing a comprehensive analysis and synthesis of the WL literature from 1984 to 2021. Based on the findings of the literature research, this paper defines the causes of WL while also providing strategies that can be employed to reduce the occurrence of WL. This paper concludes by identifying promising areas for future research in efforts to progress scholarly research.