How Two Megatrends Affect Each Other: Studying the Interplay of Remote Work and Workplace Inclusion

The modern working world is characterized by two mega-trends. First, remote work has become the “new normal” with many employees working from home. Second, increasing diversity has made the case for inclusion, i.e., opportunities for authenticity and belongingness that employees have to perceive to be performant. However, as both constructs are typically investigated by different literatures, it is unclear if their relationship is positive or negative and if it is a unidirectional or reciprocal impact that they exercise on each other. Further, it is unresolved if diversity dimensions such as gender have a moderating impact. To address these questions, we collected a large-scale, longitudinal dataset (N = 2380) and used an advanced methodology (RI-CLPM) to derive causal conclusions. Our results show that an increase in remote work has a negative impact on inclusion. Regarding belongingness, significant effects were found in both directions, with increasing remote work negatively influencing belongingness and reduced feelings of belongingness leading to an increase in remote work. For opportunity for authenticity, strong gender effects were found, with only women showing significant effects in both directions. Our findings are highly relevant for practice as companies have to foster inclusion while allowing for remote work.