Pro bono work as a zone of development between commodity exchange and reciprocity as gift exchange:

Abstract

Job crafting (JC) is a proactive action taken by employees to make their work experience more meaningful. The concept behind it is the enhancement of "private emotions" such as a private interest and/or pleasure in work； however, JC for such private emotions has not been well studied. Private emotions have sometimes been suppressed or eliminated as a non-commercial or non-intellectual element in the workplace or in capitalist societies. However, new work styles that transform private emotions into creative energy are now attracting attention. Therefore, we focused on pro bono work, which is a social contribution using job-related skills and we asked the following research questions： "In the process of crossing boundaries between commercial business (commodity exchange) and non-profitable pro bono work (reciprocal exchange as gift/counter-gift) , what differences in the relationship between the self and others are experienced? How does meaningfulness and engagement with work change in the process?" We propose the concept of emotional JC and discuss a future work style that is an extension of neoliberal entrepreneurship, and alternative work styles in post-capitalist societies.Keywords： emotional job crafting, neoliberal entrepreneurship, boundary crossing, exchange theory, pro bono