ABSTRACT Strategic change has become a persistent organizational condition rather than an episodic intervention. Yet many strategic change initiatives fail to generate sustainable performance, often not because of flawed strategic intent, but due to breakdowns in alignment between strategic objectives and human resource dynamics. Existing alignment constructs tend to emphasize structural or static fit and offer limited insight into how organizations sustain adaptation under continuous transformation. This paper advances a human‐centered framework that integrates strategic change, dynamic capabilities, and strategic human resource management (SHRM) to address this gap. It conceptualizes workforce agility as a multidimensional strategic capability comprising skill adaptability, behavioral responsiveness, and cognitive–behavioral readiness for change. Building on this foundation, the paper introduces adaptive coherence, defined as a dynamic organizational condition reflecting sustained cross‐level alignment between strategic objectives, workforce capabilities, and employee well‐being over time. Through an integrative conceptual analysis, the study explains how SHRM systems function as enabling mechanisms that cultivate workforce agility and manage the inherent tension between innovation performance and employee well‐being, particularly in contexts characterized by digital and AI‐enabled acceleration. The proposed multilevel framework positions strategic change as a coordination challenge spanning macro‐level strategy, meso‐level HR systems, and micro‐level employee behavior. By foregrounding human sustainability as a boundary condition for long‐term adaptation, the paper contributes a temporally grounded and multilevel perspective on strategic change. It positions adaptive coherence as a central explanatory construct for understanding why some organizations sustain innovation under continuous change while others experience erosion of performance and well‐being.
Giugula et al. (2026) studied this question.