Hybrid Work in the Public Administration: A Person-Environment Fit Analysis

This study examines the implementation of mandatory hybrid work in the Portuguese central government through the lens of Person-Environment Fit Theory, addressing a theoretical gap in public administration contexts beyond Anglo-American settings. Through reflexive thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 21 senior managers across central government institutions, we investigate how hybrid work fundamentally reconfigures the four Person-Environment (PE) Fit dimensions in these bureaucratic environments. Our findings identify four interconnected dimensions critical to successful hybrid work adaptation: organisational framework, leadership and management, employee-centric factors, and digitalisation support. Rather than operating independently, these dimensions function as an interdependent ecosystem in which disruption cascades systemically. This systemic interdependence necessitates simultaneous intervention across all dimensions, fundamentally challenging human resource management orthodoxy. Our study reveals how traditional supervisory control mechanisms collapse under hybrid arrangements, forcing managerial reinvention that transcends established public sector hierarchies. Our theoretical contribution demonstrates how regulatory mandates reshape PE Fit dynamics in ways that voluntary adoption cannot capture, while revealing how public sector hybrid arrangements could serve as catalysts for geographic economic redistribution, offering solutions to Portugal’s demographic challenges of rural depopulation and urban concentration.