Autonomy as a Double-Edged Resource: Perceived Organizational Support, Trust, and Commitment in Korean Hybrid Work
Hajir Afzali
Abstract:
Autonomy is widely assumed to strengthen employee commitment, yet research on hybrid work increasingly points to an “autonomy paradox,” whereby greater latitude over work can also loosen employees’ attachment to the organization. This study examines how autonomy in hybrid work relates to organizational commitment in a Korean context, focusing on perceived organizational support (POS) and organizational trust as relational mechanisms. Survey data were collected from 300 full-time employees working under hybrid arrangements in South Korea. We estimated a serial mediation model using PROCESS (Model 6), with autonomy as the predictor, POS and trust as mediators, organizational commitment as the outcome, and job satisfaction, job demands, demographic variables, and hybrid-work intensity as controls. The results show that autonomy is strongly and positively associated with POS, and that POS strongly predicts both trust and organizational commitment. Autonomy has a positive indirect effect on commitment that operates entirely through POS, whereas indirect paths involving trust are not significant once POS and job satisfaction are taken into account. At the same time, the direct effect of autonomy on commitment becomes significantly negative when POS, trust, and satisfaction are controlled, even though the total (unmediated) effect of autonomy on commitment is nonsignificant. This pattern reveals an autonomy paradox in hybrid work: autonomy simultaneously supports commitment by signaling organizational support and weakens residual attachment by fostering psychological independence. The findings highlight POS as the pivotal mechanism through which autonomy translates into commitment and suggest that, in hybrid work, organizations must design supported autonomy—pairing flexibility with visible, relational support—rather than relying on autonomy alone to sustain employee commitment.
Keywords:
hybrid work; job autonomy; organizational support; job satisfaction; organizational commitment