Previous studies have suggested that transformational leadership has a negative impact on employee turnover intention and
behavior. However, we do not know how transformational leaders actually retain employees and reduce their turnover rate. This study
advances our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of transformational leadership by testing whether transformational leaders
retain employees through triggering a high level of supervisor-based social exchange, organization-based social exchange with their
subordinates, or both. We found that the negative relationship between transformational leadership and employee turnover intention
was mediated by AC, which captures organization-based social exchange, rather than by LMX, which represents supervisor-based social
exchange. Consistent with the results of past studies, we also found that turnover intentionmediates the link between AC and turnover
behavior at both Time 2 and Time 3 (Griffeth et al., 2000; Martin & Epitropaki, 2001).
Although we did not hypothesize the differential effects of LMX and AC on the relationship between transformational
leadership and turnover intention, our findings showed that AC is a stronger social exchange mechanism, translating
the leadership effect into turnover intention. Our findings lend support to a key feature of transformational leadership