Change competence: An integrative literature review.
Cathrine Reineholm, Daniel Lundqvist, Andreas Wallo
PMID 38489211WHAT IT FOUND
This review synthesizes 32 studies on how staff manage workplace changes, focusing on leadership and employee participation.
It offers a framework for understanding competence during transitions but reports no clinical outcomes or patient effects.
Key findings
01The review defines change competence as the capacity to utilize existing skills and develop new ones to meet organizational needs, broken down into four themes: leading change, employee participation, attitudes, and learning opportunities.
02Included studies suggest that supportive leadership and early employee involvement are associated with better acceptance of change, though these are findings from the source papers, not the review's own data.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This is a narrative review of organizational theory, not a clinical study. It contains no data on patient outcomes, treatment efficacy, or clinical practice changes. The included studies varied widely in design and quality, and none had an explicit critical perspective on power dynamics or gender. The review focuses on planned changes, ignoring emergent or spontaneous organizational shifts. Relevance to physical, occupational, or speech therapy practice is not established in the text; the findings apply to general organizational management.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this paper to justify clinical interventions or to predict patient outcomes. It describes how organizations manage internal changes like restructuring or IT implementation, which is distinct from delivering therapy to patients.