Perceived inclusion at work: A key element in the relationship between social cohesion at work, job self-efficacy and adjustment to the way of working in the new normal

This study aims at investigating a serial mediation model of work adjustment in the New Normal. A convenience sample of 313 French employees working in three different ways (onsite and partially or fully remotely) filled an online self-report questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested using regression analyses and a serial mediation analysis with bootstrapping. Results indicated that social cohesion, perceived inclusion and self-efficacy in the work context were directly related to the adjustment to the way of working. Furthermore, social cohesion at work was indirectly associated with the adjustment to the way of working through the subsequent mediation first of perception of inclusion at work, and then of job self-efficacy. This study highlights the role of several factors of the work environment, relational and personal, which favor work adjustment. In particular, this study underlines the role of perceived inclusion at work, a basic need of human beings, which, favored by social cohesion at work, and through the increase of the feeling of job self-efficacy, participates, as a key element, to the process of people's adjustment to the different ways of working. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.