The Relationship between Total Quality Management Critical Success Factors and Knowledge Sharing in a Service Industry

Abstract

Total quality management (TQM), its components, techniques and principles are extensively accepted by scholars as a comprehensive philosophy for improving organizational performance (OP). Moreover, findings suggest that a prerequisite for successfully implementing TQM is exchanging knowledge in the organization. However, the number of studies addressing the mentioned issue is limited. Also, the nature of knowledge and its interactions with TQM are not properly investigated. Current study investigates the role of employees’ different forms of knowledge sharing appreciation in their tendency to use TQM critical success factors (CSFs). In order to do so, knowledge sharing was divided into two categories of explicit and tacit, and the employees of the IT department of one of the largest companies in Middle East were selected and grouped based on their knowledge sharing characteristics. Further, ten categories were identified for TQM CSFs, and the employees’ appreciation of CSFs were measured. The data were gathered through two questionnaires. Finally, the subjects were plotted and grouped using Tacit–Explicit Analysis. The results indicated that while both Tacit and Explicit knowledge sharing positively correlates with CSF appreciation, a simultaneous increase in both types can bear much fruitful positive results.