Current understanding and theories of wellbeing washing in the context of workplace health and wellbeing: A scoping review protocol

Workplace health and wellbeing practitioners have recently voiced concerns regarding the emerging concept of wellbeing washing (WW). While practitioner literature extensively discusses this concept, research supporting the examination of it and offering solutions is lacking. This scoping review protocol outlines a means of comprehensively investigating and mapping the mainly practitioner-authored literature on WW, to support the establishment of a working definition and deeper understanding of this concept, which will inform future research. A search strategy will be employed to map information from diverse practitioner literature sources. Guided by the JBI Scoping Review Framework, two reviewers will use predefined criteria to independently screen included sources and capture information using a standardized data extraction tool. A basic qualitative content analysis will be conducted and results presented in tabular form. A narrative summary will complement the tabulated results, providing further context. • The scoping review will identify, map, and synthesize existing literature on the emerging concept of WW. • The JBI Scoping Review Framework and PRISMA-ScR reporting tool will be employed, to ensure a methodical and systematic approach. • The outcomes aim to support the establishment of a working definition and provide deeper understanding of WW to inform future research.