Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

Aim: Hybrid work has become an established way of organizing work in multinational organizations, where standardized hybrid work policies are used to manage flexibility, office attendance, and collaboration. However, less attention has been given to how employees actually experience and enact these policies in their everyday work practices. Therefore, this study explores how employees experience and enact standardized hybrid work policies in a knowledge-intensive department of a multinational corporation, and how these enactments influence their perceptions of fairness and legitimacy.

Method: The study used a qualitative case study approach within the software development department of a multinational IT and consulting company operating in Sweden and India. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight employees and supported by organizational documents, including the company’s annual reports. The data were analyzed using template analysis, guided by concepts from practice theory, policy enactment, adaptation, the policy-practice gap, fairness, and legitimacy.

Results: The findings show that employees continuously adapted standardized hybrid work policies based on task demands, coordination needs, and managerial expectations. This created a gap between formal rules and everyday work realities. Within this gap, employees navigated a visibility-flexibility paradox: hybrid work formally increased flexibility, but informal expectations regarding office attendance and visibility persisted. The same policy was also enacted differently across the two contexts, reflecting differences in workplace arrangements, coordination practices, and managerial expectations. These enactments shaped employees’ perceptions of fairness and legitimacy, with legitimacy being strengthened when hybrid work arrangements were experienced as practical, consistent, and aligned with everyday work demands.

Conclusion: The study concludes that standardized hybrid work policies do not produce standardized experiences for employees. Employees’ perceptions of fairness and legitimacy are not decided by formal policy alone. Instead, they are shaped by how hybrid work arrangements are enacted and experienced in everyday work settings.