Background. Organization must retain its productive employees to achieve its goals. At the present time, Gen Y employees were reported to have higher turnover intentions compared to older generations. This study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of the dimensions of organizational embeddedness (fit, links, and sacrifice) in the relationship between perceived career opportunity (PCO) and turnover intentions. Using the conversation of resource theory, it was argued that individuals with high PCO would feel fit with the organization because the career opportunities that were provided by organization in accordance with their career goals, would be motivated to build social relationships in organizations and felt burdened if they had to leave the organization, thus in turn led to low levels of turnover intentions.

Methods. We employed self-reported survey to collect the data among employees of various organizations in Jakarta and its surroundings (N = 311) and were analyzed using mediation technique on Hayes PROCESS macros on SPSS v. 20. We employed Harman’s first factor technique to check whether common method bias was prevalent in the self-reported survey.

Results. The results of this study showed that fit and sacrifice dimensions mediated the relationship between PCO and turnover intentions (indirect effect = -.31, SE = .05, CI 95% [-.4184, -.2251]; indirect effect = -.05, SE = .02, CI 95% [-.1058, -.0144]; respectively), but not links dimension (indirect effect = .01, SE = .01, CI 95% [-.0075, .0493]). Links mediate the PCO and turnover intentions only when combined with fit and sacrifice (indirect effect = -.01, SE = 0.00, CI 95% [-.0166, -.0017]).

Conclusions. Based on the results, fit, links, and sacrifice dimensions of organizational embeddedness together mediated the relationship between perceived career opportunity and turnover intentions. We found that conservation of resources theory robustly explained the mediating effects of organizational embeddedness dimensions, that the career opportunity provided by the organization is seen as organizational resources by employees that develop their fit experience, relationships with others, and the unwillingness to sacrifice the resources. In other words, employees will be attached to the organization, and in turn will lower their intention to leave the organization.

Added-Values. Previous studies rarely considered each dimension of job embeddedness in their relationships with other job variables. This study contributed to the literature of perceived career opportunity and turnover relationship by showing the underlying psychological processes of the dimensions of organizational embeddedness dimensions, namely fit, links and sacrifice in perceived career opportunity and turnover intentions relationship. This study also contributed to the literature by focusing on Gen Y employees, who are known to have high turnover intentions when they feel they have little chance of developing careers that match their interest.

Contribution to society. As practical contributions, our results suggest organizations to create a clear career opportunity that match with employees’ career goals to reduce turnover intentions. Organization could conduct job rotation and job enrichment to increase employees’ perceived career opportunity and conduct a review to find out their perception and preference for the job which match with their career interest.

Keywords: organizational embeddedness; perceived career opportunity; turnover intentions; millennials