Exploring the Meaning of Hybrid Work Experiences: A Qualitative Inquiry among Employees in Multinational Organizations

Abstract

Hybrid work has become a defining transformation in contemporary business administration, reshaping how employees experience connection, identity, and belonging in digitally mediated environments. Within organizational research, increasing attention has been given to understanding how individuals construct meaning and adapt to hybrid work, yet much of the existing literature remains dominated by functional and quantitative perspectives. However, little is known about how employees experience hybrid work as a lived phenomenon and how they interpret its emotional and existential dimensions. This study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of employees in multinational corporations, revealing how they navigate the paradoxes of autonomy and surveillance, connection and isolation, and belonging and fragmentation. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with twelve participants and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), yielding three core themes: negotiating connection and isolation, redefining professional identity, and reconstructing organizational belonging. To strengthen methodological rigor, this study explicitly applied systematic IPA procedures—including iterative coding, reflexive memoing, and cross-case thematic convergence—to ensure analytic transparency and trustworthiness. The findings demonstrate that hybrid work transforms the meaning of “being at work” by prompting individuals to renegotiate visibility, authenticity, and relational trust within fluid digital-physical spaces. Practically, the results offer insights for organizations to design hybrid work policies that foster relational trust, support employee well-being, and encourage authentic engagement across digital and physical settings. This study is limited by its small, non-random sample and single-industry focus, which may constrain transferability; future research should expand across sectors, incorporate cross-cultural samples, or adopt longitudinal designs to capture evolving interpretations of hybrid work.