In today’s complex environments, organizations increasingly rely on their ability to manage change and build resilience to sustain long-term competitiveness. This phenomenon is particularly evident in high technological intensive companies dealing with frequent changes due to digitalization and technological disruptions. Through a Systematic Literature Review this study investigates the interconnections between change management, individual resilience, and organizational resilience, with the aims to identify theoretical models and key constructs shaping the complexity of business organizations when approaching to change processes. Based on the analysis of 46 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2007 and 2025, findings reveal that individual resilience – defined as the psychological capacity to cope with, adapt and recover from adversity – plays a pivotal role in shaping employee responses to organizational change. Transformational leadership and resilient organizational cultures act as enablers, reinforcing individual capabilities and translating them into collective adaptive capacity.
Several studies draw on theoretical perspectives such as dynamic capabilities, psychological capital, and the resource-based view, suggesting that resilience is not a static attribute but a dynamic, multilevel process involving learning, improvisation, and innovation. Despite growing scholarly attention, the literature remains fragmented, with limited longitudinal designs and scarce integration across micro, and macro levels.
To address these limitations, on top of the literature, the study introduces a conceptual model that links individual resilience to organizational resilience through change management processes, in which leadership and culture represent key enablers. This model offers a strategic lens to understand how individual psychological resources can be leveraged to support organizational transformation and long-term sustainability in volatile and knowledge-intensive contexts. This study also highlights the importance of connecting human dynamics with organizational agility and encourages future interdisciplinary research on multilevel resilience as a knowledge-based capability to enable adaptive and sustainable change.