The mediating role of organizational excellence between quality management practices and sustainable performance

Abstract

The inconsistent relationships in the previous research studies related to quality management practices and sustainability have initiated the purpose of this study. Further investigation is prompted to understand better the effects of other intervening variables to explain the nature of the relationship. Therefore, this study investigated the mediating roles of organizational excellence on the relationship between quality management practices (QMP) and sustainability. The QMP considered in this study are human resources management (HRM), service design (SD), information and analysis (IA), benchmarking (BM) and management leadership (ML) with the respective relationship with sustainable performance while being mediated by organizational excellence. A questionnaire survey was administered to 303 companies of Malaysian food and beverage and the returned questionnaires were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results revealed that organizational excellence is a significant mediator of the relationships between ML, SD, HRM and sustainability. The developed framework from this study can be employed by policy and decision-makers to forecast and provide insights into the economy. Managers in the industry should consider the importance of this model when implementing any practice in the future. For future research, it is recommended that a longitudinal study is carried out to evaluate the impact of TQM and organizational excellence on SP.

Keywords:

• Organizational excellence
• sustainable performance
• total quality management
• PLS-SEM
• food and beverages

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our gratitude to Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) for giving the Doctoral Researcher the opportunity to conduct this beneficial research through Ph.D. Scholar Research Grant (S/O code: 16045).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universiti Utara Malaysia [grant number 16045].

Notes on contributors

Muslim Diekola Akanmu

Muslim Diekola Akanmu is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Johannesburg under the Johannesburg Business School and an Author with the Institute for Youth Research (IYRES) under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Malaysia. He bagged his Doctoral degree in Technology, Operations and Logistics Management and Master's degree in Technology Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia. He earned Bachelor of Technology in Agricultural Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria. He is a graduate member of Nigeria Society of Engineers, an affiliate member of Malaysian Institute of Management and an associate member of Malaysian Society for Engineering.

Mohamad Ghozali Hassan

Mohamad Ghozali Hassan is an Associate Professor and Professional Technologists at the School of Technology Management and Logistics, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). His primary teaching interests is in technology and operation management. He has taught courses of this nature, both at the bachelor, master and doctorate levels for the past 20 years. His main research interest is in the area of inter-organizational relations, antecedent factors of supplier-manufacturer relationship, outsourcing management, and environmental dynamism. Currently, he is the manager for the Business Development and Strategic Department (BSD) under Transformation and Method Division, UUM.

Mohammad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi

Mohammad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi earned both his Master's and Doctoral Degree from Universiti Utara Malaysia in the field of management. He has served as a member of the Postgraduate Students' Society at Universiti Utara Malaysia (PGSS) for a year. He has taught a few courses as an interim lecturer in the field of Human Resources Management (HRM) and Strategic Management. His main research interest is in the area of HRM, organizational behavior, deviant workplace behavior, and sustainability.

Ahmad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi

Ahmad Said Ibrahim Alshuaibi is an Assistant Professor in the area of Human Resource Management (HRM), Organizational Behavior, Deviance behavior and Consumer Behavior at the Institute of Management Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirate. He bagged both his Doctoral and Master's degree in HRM at Universiti Utara Malaysia. He has more than 6 years of international teaching experience in Human Resource Management and Marketing field. He held Marketing manager post at the School of Business Management (UUM). He held the position for Assistant Project Manager for the World Association of Islamic Business School (WAiBS).

Bahtiar Mohamad

Bahtiar Mohamad is Resident Faculty and Associate Professor of Corporate Communication and Strategy at Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business (OYAGSB), UUM Kuala Lumpur. With a degree from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; a Master of Science from Universiti Putra Malaysia, and a PhD from Brunel University London, United Kingdom, Bahtiar has been serving Universiti Utara Malaysia for approximately 18 years. Formerly, he served as a Head of Communication Department, Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, UUM for 3 years from 2005 - 2008. From 2014 to 2016, he was Practicum Coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Adilah Othman

Adilah Othman is a senior lecturer at INTI International University, Sembilan, Malaysia. She has served as a part-time lecturer at UCSI University. She also formerly acted as a visiting lecturer for the Asian Institute of Cambodia at Phnom Penh, where she taught undergraduate and postgraduate students on Marketing and Strategic Management. She graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Marketing with honours and a Master of Science in Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia. She completed her PhD in Internal Brand Management at UUM in 2021. She is also actively involves in research activities with PKT Logistics Group Malaysia.