Response and Adaptation to Change: An Allied Health Perspective

Lisa Beasley

doi:10.25918/thesis.438

Allied health professionals are highly skilled, qualified practitioners who play an essential role in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a broad range of illnesses and conditions. Although often presented as a unified and homogenous group, allied health professionals bring to their discipline a diversity of education and training, philosophical frameworks, practice methodologies and core competencies. Allied health professionals work in healthcare environments in which accelerating rates of technological innovation, aging populations, increasing rates of chronic disease, mounting consumer demands and new treatment modalities require them to be agile and adaptive when responding to change. Change management literature has focused on change at the organisational level. The literature on change management in allied health has focused on clinical interventions that can be used to facilitate change in patient population groups but has largely overlooked the response to change of allied health professionals. This thesis examined how the allied health professional groups of dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, social work, and speech pathology respond and adapt to change. This thesis aimed to identify the individual and group characteristics that influence their response. Contemporary healthcare organisations must be flexible to accommodate the needs of an aging population, the demands of a longer life expectancy and the complexities of new and innovative interventions. Lewin’s (1947) Field Theory and Group Dynamics approaches, which highlight the significance of the group in change processes, were used to provide a conceptual framework for this thesis. To answer the research questions, a mixed methods study using an explanatory sequential design was conducted in three phases. In Phases 1 and 3, data were collected using the Acceptance to Change Scale (Di Fabio & Gori, 2016) and the Resistance to Change Scale (Oreg, 2003). In Phase 2, data were collected using semi-structured interviews. This thesis found that allied health professionals respond and adapt to change similarly regardless of their professional group. Where individual differences exist, they are concerned with generational groups rather than professional groups. The findings of this thesis were that allied health professionals’ response and adaptation to change is directly related to the rationale and purpose of the change, the way it is communicated and the way it is implemented. A better work-life balance, increased productivity and enhanced readiness for upcoming changes can all be attained through effective change management. Consequently, the findings of this thesis and their implications for effective change management have powerful implications for change leaders, policymakers and allied health professionals involved in change in healthcare environments.

Response and Adaptation to Change: An Allied Health Perspective

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Response and Adaptation to Change: An Allied Health Perspective

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