Abstract：Drawing on the social identification theory, we built a theoretical model to reveal how the overall differences, that are leader-member exchange differentiation (LMXD) and team-member exchange differentiation (TMXD), and relative differences, that are LMX relational separation (LMXRS) and TMX relational separation (TMXRS), impact team member’s turnover intention by taking leader identification and team identification as mediators in two paths respectively. Multi-level path analysis was employed to test hypotheses in our theoretical model based on the data collected from 1479 members in 145 teams at two different time points with a lag of two weeks. Results in this study show that: (1) LMXD not only moderates the relationship between LMXRS and leader identification, but also moderates two indirect paths linking LMXRS to turnover intention through the mediating effect of leader identification and through the series mediating effects of leader identification and team identification; and (2) TMXD not only moderates the relationship between TMXRS and team identification, but also moderate the indirect path linking TMXRS to turnover intention through the mediating effect of team identification.
