Quality management practices and organizational knowledge management: A quantitative and qualitative investigation

This research used a quantitative and qualitative methodology to study the relationship between quality management and knowledge management practices in for-profit companies. Three quality management practices were examined---leadership, training and process control. Leadership practices related to top management's role in an organization's quality management efforts. Training was defined as the extent to which an organization emphasized training within its quality management efforts. Process control related to the extent to which an organization directed its quality management efforts towards controlling internal processes. Knowledge management was divided into structural and behavioral approaches. Knowledge management structural approaches were defined as practices where an organization used information systems and other tools to capture and disseminate knowledge. Knowledge management behavioral approaches were defined as practices where an organization emphasized social interaction to share knowledge.; The theory behind this research was twofold. First, the use of organizational approaches to knowledge management is influenced by an organization's context. In this research quality management was studied as the organizational context for the use of knowledge management approaches. Second, quality management and knowledge management can be divided into control or structural approaches and behavioral approaches. It was hypothesized that companies that employ quality management control practices would use knowledge management structural approaches. Conversely it was hypothesized that companies that use quality management behavioral practices would employ knowledge management behavioral approaches. All correlations between quality management practices and knowledge management approaches were found to be positive and statistically different than zero. The correlation between knowledge management structure and quality management process control [.58] was found to be statistically different than the correlations between knowledge management structure and quality management leadership and training. The qualitative interviews yielded results that supported the existence of all correlations and aided in their interpretation.; Overall it was determined that there is some correlation between quality management practices and knowledge management approaches. For managers in quality management companies this research suggested that the clearest path to successful knowledge management is by linking the firm's process control activities to the implementation of structural and behavioral approaches to knowledge management.