The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on intention to leaving work in the COVID 19 pandemic: The mediating role of perceived organizational support

In terms of world tourism, 2019 was recorded as the year in which the best results were achieved in terms of the number of people traveling and the tourism economy. The coronavirus pandemic Covid-19, which started in the Wuhan, a large city of People's Republic of China at the last months of 2019 and spread all over the world since the beginning of 2020, has negatively affected tourism like many other sectors. Travel restrictions, cancellations of events and curfews applied at the local and international level have caused income and employment losses in tourism and related business fields. Negative emotions such as future anxiety, perception of uncertainty and fear accompanying the pandemic have been examined in many different academic studies. In this thesis, the effect of the level of intolerance of uncertainty on intention of leaving among people working in 4 - 5 star hotels in the Mediterranean and Aegean Regions and the mediator role of organizational support perception on this effect were examined. 480 tourism employees participated in the survey, 37 surveys were not included in the evaluation and analyzes were carried out with 443 surveys. The applied questionnaire consisted of a total of 35 questions, including the intolerance of uncertainty short scale, the intention to leave scale, the perception of organizational support scale, and the demographic and occupational profiles of the participants. According to the results of the analyzes, as the level of intolerance to uncertainty increases, an increase in the intention to leave work is visible. Hayes (Process) Analysis was applied to understand if perceived organizational support has a mediating role in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and intention to leave and it has been found that it is in a full mediating role. Organizational support perception levels of all tourism employees in different subgroups were high. As perceived organizational support increased, intention to leaving work decreased significantly. It has been observed that the organizational support perception levels of the hospitality business employees, who have been affected by pandemic and have not yet fully compensated for the loss, are above the middle, with 66%. These results were evaluated as a data supporting the results of previous academic studies, as positive reflections can be seen if they get support from their managers and employers. According to the analyze results, it is clear that the employees, which should be accepted as an important value for every business, should be protected from the uncertainty created by external factors. It has been evaluated that perceiving high level of organizational support from employers and managers will reduce thoughts such as changing workplace or leaving the sector. Keywords: Covid 19 Pandemic, Intention to Leaving Work, Tourism, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Percieved Organizational Support