Work from anywhere as hybrid governance: bounded flexibility and digital traceability in Makassar City government

Work from anywhere (WFA) creates a practical tension for public bureaucracy: spatial flexibility is viable only when accountability, supervision, coordination, and service continuity remain controllable. This study examines a short-duration WFA implementation in Makassar City government, Indonesia, focusing on digital traceability, supervisory validation, task differentiation, and service-continuity safeguards. Using a qualitative exploratory single-case design, it draws on interviews with 36 participants, direct and digital observation, and policy and administrative documents, analyzed through hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis supported by NVivo 12. The findings show that WFA did not replace bureaucratic control. Physical attendance was supplemented by digital evidence of task completion, while working-hour rules, deadlines, reporting obligations, and supervisory review remained in force. Flexibility also varied by function: back-office and coordination tasks were more compatible with remote work, whereas frontline and field-based services retained stronger requirements for on-site availability. The study conceptualizes this pattern as bounded flexibility within a hybrid governance arrangement: spatial discretion becomes administratively defensible when digital traces are substantively validated, task characteristics shape the permissible degree of flexibility, and continuity safeguards protect services that cannot be detached from physical presence.