https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019873681 Public Personnel Management 1–26 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0091026019873681 journals.sagepub.com/home/ppm Original Article Empowering Leadership, Social Support, and Job Crafting in Public Organizations: A Multilevel Study Mieke Audenaert 1 , Bert George 1,2 , Robin Bauwens 1,3 , Anouk Decuypere 1 , Anne-Marie Descamps 1 , Jolien Muylaert 1 , Rufei Ma 4 , and Adelien Decramer 1 Abstract The public sector requires job crafting from employees so that they can better cope with overdemanding jobs due to layer upon layer of public management reforms. Simultaneously, however, red tape and austerity constrain job autonomy. This study therefore tests how job crafting can be fostered in public organizations by studying social resources at work and, specifically, empowering leadership and social support. Multilevel analyses based on survey data from 1,059 nurses in 67 public elderly care organizations in Flanders, Belgium, show that empowering leadership and social support contribute to job crafting and, simultaneously, strengthen each other’s contribution. Additional analyses showed that empowering leadership, social support, as well as their interaction have differential relations vis-à-vis the different dimensions of job crafting. The implications for public management are discussed. Keywords job crafting, empowering leadership, social support, overdemanding jobs, public personnel management 1 Ghent University, Belgium 2 Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3 Tilburg University, The Netherlands 4 Wuhan Business University, China Corresponding Author: Mieke Audenaert, Department of Marketing, Innovation and Organisation, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Campus Tweekerken – Hoveniersberg, Tweekerkenstraat 2, Ghent 9000, Belgium. Email: mieke.audenaert@ugent.be 873681PPM XX X 10.1177/0091026019873681Public Personnel ManagementAudenaert et al. research-article 2019