Makassar Case Study Finds Remote Work Maintained Public Bureaucratic Control

A short-duration implementation of work from anywhere in the Makassar City government in Indonesia did not dismantle bureaucratic control, according to a qualitative exploratory single-case study published in Frontiers in Political Science. Researchers found that allowing public servants spatial flexibility did not eliminate traditional administrative oversight, but instead created a hybrid governance structure where spatial discretion was permitted only alongside maintained accountability, supervision, coordination, and service continuity.

The study evaluated how public bureaucracy manages the practical tension between granting spatial flexibility and preserving administrative integrity, focusing specifically on digital traceability, supervisory validation, task differentiation, and service-continuity safeguards. In this arrangement, physical presence at municipal desks was supplemented by digital verification of completed work, ensuring that supervisory review, strict reporting obligations, set working-hour rules, and operational deadlines remained fully active throughout the remote-work period.

To investigate these administrative dynamics, the research team employed a qualitative exploratory single-case design drawing upon multiple empirical sources. The investigation gathered primary data through direct and digital observations, official policy and administrative documents, and formal interviews conducted with 36 participants across the municipal administration. The qualitative dataset was systematically processed and evaluated using hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis supported by NVivo 12 software.

The empirical findings demonstrated that the permissible degree of remote flexibility depended fundamentally on the functional characteristics of specific administrative roles. Back-office duties and inter-agency coordination tasks proved highly compatible with remote work arrangements, allowing personnel to operate off-site without disrupting administrative workflows. Conversely, frontline public services and field-based operations retained stringent requirements for mandatory on-site availability, establishing continuity safeguards for municipal responsibilities that cannot be separated from physical public access.

The authors conceptualized this operational pattern as bounded flexibility within a hybrid governance framework, defining an operating model in which remote civil service discretion becomes administratively defensible. Under this framework, spatial flexibility is justified only when digital traces are substantively verified by supervisors, task profiles dictate the permissible scope of remote work, and institutional continuity safeguards prevent disruption to critical public-facing functions.

Subject of Research: Administrative control and bounded flexibility during remote work in Makassar City government

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

Article References: Muliaty, M., Farida, U., Asri, A., Ginting, Y. M., & Yusriadi, Y. (2026). Work from anywhere as hybrid governance: bounded flexibility and digital traceability in Makassar City government. Frontiers in Political Science, 8, Article 1912628. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2026.1912628

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fpos.2026.1912628

Keywords: bounded flexibility, digital traceability, hybrid governance, public administration, bureaucratic control, work from anywhere, Makassar City, local government, Work, anywhere, hybrid, governance