Employee readiness for organisational change in the post-pandemic context: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Orientation: The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, such as rapid organisational change. Employee readiness for change has emerged as a key determinant of the success of change initiatives.
Research purpose: This study aims to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of scholarly research on employee readiness for organisational change in the post-pandemic context from 2021 to 2025.
Motivation for the study: While organisational change has been extensively studied, the post-pandemic era has heightened the urgency of understanding the human dimensions of change, particularly employee readiness. Given the acceleration of workplace transformation, there is a need to map scientific documentation and identify under-explored areas for future research.
Research approach/design and method: This study employed bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database as the primary data source. A total of 147 publications were analysed using VOSviewer.
Main findings: The analysis of keyword co-occurrence found five major clusters: (1) organisational change management and digital transformation; (2) psychological and relational constructs; (3) leadership and employee experiences; (4) job satisfaction, performance and self-efficacy and (5) sustainability and innovative behaviours. The results show growing interest in research on readiness for change, with a significant increase in citations from 2021 to 2025, indicating expanding academic influence.
Practical/managerial implications: Organisational leaders should prioritise strategies that foster employee readiness for change, such as developing digital readiness, enhancing psychological and relational support systems within the organisation, implementing adaptive and empathetic leadership, promoting performance-enhancing practices that build employee self-efficacy and engagement and integrating sustainability and innovation into organisational culture.
Contribution/value-add: This study synthesises readiness for change as an emergent capability encompassing psychological, relational, technological and strategic dimensions. By identifying key authors, institutions and collaborative clusters, the study maps research directions on this topic. It also identifies digital transformation and sustainability as emerging focal points related to readiness for change in the post-pandemic context and the future of workplace.