Skill adaptability
Employees' ability to acquire and redeploy competencies across tasks and roles. High-involvement work systems enhance skill utilisation and intrinsic motivation, particularly under change.
Boxall et al. 2015 · Valizade et al. 2016
Q
Q-ACI
Adaptive Coherence Console · THE Q AGENCY
Strategic Change · Volume 2026 · Research Article · Wiley
Adaptive Coherence in Strategic Change
Workforce agility, strategic human resource management, and employee well-being as a multilevel framework for sustaining adaptation under continuous transformation.
01 The Construct
A temporally grounded condition, not a structural fit
Adaptive coherence is introduced as an emergent organisational condition - not a single HR practice, discrete capability, or outcome variable.
Definiendum · Working Definition
Adaptive
Adaptive
coherence
A dynamic organisational condition reflecting sustained cross-level alignment between strategic objectives, workforce capabilities, and employee well-being over time.
It manifests through consistency across levels: what strategy demands, what HR systems enable, and what employees can realistically sustain. When these signals diverge - when performance expectations escalate without corresponding support - coherence deteriorates.
Adaptive coherence is therefore not a one-time achievement. Strategic initiatives unfold in waves, often overlapping and cumulative. Coherence requires ongoing recalibration rather than static alignment.
Macro · Strategic Intent
i.
Repositioning under competitive intensity
Deliberate efforts to reposition the firm in response to technological acceleration, regulatory shifts, and competitive pressures. Strategic intent alone does not guarantee realised adaptation.
Meso · SHRM Infrastructure
ii.
The integrator that conditions enactment
HR architectures - practices, policies, relational climates - that translate strategic intent into workforce conditions. Shape how employees interpret change and whether discretionary effort is mobilised.
Micro · Workforce Agility
iii.
Enacted capability at the operational layer
A multidimensional strategic capability - skill adaptability, behavioural responsiveness, cognitive–behavioural readiness - bounded by employee well-being as a viability constraint.
i.
Strategic change failures stem from misalignment between strategy and human systems, not flawed strategic intent.
ii.
Workforce agility functions as a strategic capability linking dynamic capabilities to employee behaviour.
iii.
SHRM enables adaptive coherence by aligning performance, adaptability, and well-being over time.
iv.
Digital and AI-enabled acceleration intensifies the tension between innovation performance and human sustainability.
02 Figure 1 · Interactive
The integrative model, as a navigable surface
Select any node to read the construct's role in the model - the strategic input, the three coherence elements, the boundary condition, and the contextual intensifier.
03 Adaptive Coherence Index · Diagnostic
A working operationalisation, for empirical testing
A composite index that holds the three levels in tension, treats well-being as a moderator, and lets digital acceleration amplify the cost of misalignment - illustrative, not yet validated.
System Inputs
ACI v0.1 · Conceptual
a. Skill adaptability
60 / 100
b. Behavioural responsiveness
58 / 100
c. Cognitive–behavioural readiness
55 / 100
Coherence Readout
ACI · Composite
Adaptive Coherence Index
74
/ 100
Conditionally coherent.
Decomposition
Mean capability across levels
64
Cross-level alignment
88
Well-being moderation
×0.98
Digital amplification penalty
−0.0
Diagnostic. Recalibration advised. The system holds, but one or more levels lag behind the others. Sustained transformation will widen the gap unless SHRM evolves alongside strategic escalation.
04 Table 1 · Construct Positioning
Where adjacent constructs leave gaps
Strategic fit, HR–strategy alignment, dynamic alignment, and ambidexterity each capture part of the alignment problem. Adaptive coherence absorbs what they leave on the table.
| Construct | Typical emphasis | Temporal logic | Level focus | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic fit | Strategy–structure match | Static | Macro | Sustainability under continuous change |
| HR–strategy alignment | HR supports strategy | Semi-static | Macro–Meso | Well-being as a constraint |
| Dynamic alignment | Recalibration over time | Dynamic | Macro | Micro-level enactment and strain |
| Ambidexterity | Balance of exploration & exploitation | Dynamic | Macro | Human depletion risks |
| Adaptive coherence | Cross-level sustained alignment | Temporal stability under continuous change | Macro–Meso–Micro | —addresses sustainability failures |
05 Workforce Agility · The Triad
Three dimensions, embedded in one capability
Workforce agility is treated not as flexibility or speed but as a multidimensional strategic capability - cultivated by SHRM, bounded by well-being.
Behavioural responsiveness
Willingness to adjust behaviours, collaborate, and engage proactively. More likely when HR practices are perceived as supportive and fair - the operational mechanism through which strategic change is actually enacted.
Alfes et al. 2012, 2020
Cognitive–behavioural readiness
Psychological capacity to cope with uncertainty: openness to change, tolerance for ambiguity. Job insecurity and performance pressure erode it; trust-based and autonomy-supportive environments restore it.
Shoss 2017 · Huang et al. 2020 · Brown et al. 2015
06 Propositions for Empirical Testing
Six propositions, ready for operationalisation
The model implies a testable chain: SHRM cultivates agility, agility drives innovation, well-being moderates the relationship, and adaptive coherence mediates the path from strategic change to sustainable performance.
Strategic human resource management systems are positively associated with workforce agility.
Path · SHRM → WA
SHRM systems are positively associated with each agility dimension - skill adaptability, behavioural responsiveness, and cognitive–behavioural readiness.
Sub-paths · SHRM → WAa,b,c
Workforce agility is positively associated with innovation performance during strategic change.
Path · WA → Innovation
Employee well-being moderates the workforce agility → innovation performance relationship — the positive association is stronger when well-being is high.
Moderator · WB × WA → Innovation
Alignment between strategic objectives, SHRM systems, workforce agility, and employee well-being is positively associated with sustainable organisational performance.
Cross-level · Alignment → Sustainable Perf.
Adaptive coherence mediates the relationship between strategic change initiatives and sustainable performance outcomes.
Mediator · SCI → AC → SP
Digital acceleration strengthens the negative effects of misalignment between strategic objectives and employee well-being on sustainable performance.
Intensifier · DA × misalignment → SP↓
As a conceptual study, the framework requires empirical validation. Future research should operationalise adaptive coherence as a multilevel construct and test its mediating role between strategic change initiatives and sustainable performance.
Longitudinal · Cross-industry