TQM and sustainability: a study of the methods and CSFs of TQM for achieving sustainability

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the existing link between Total Quality Management (TQM) and Sustainability, consistent with the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach. For this purpose, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out, which resulted in a corpus of 139 scientific articles covering the period from 1996 to 2023. Two research questions were answered: (1) What are the main research methodologies adopted in literature to analyze the relationship between TQM and Sustainability? (2) Which are the mostly used CSFs of TQM for achieving Sustainability? Based on this analysis, a thorough explanation of why TQM can be considered the catalyst of Sustainability is presented. The results indicate how four CSFs of TQM, which are Human Resources Management ‘HRM’, ‘Process management’, ‘Customer Focus’ and ‘Continuous Improvement’, recur and intersect with each other in literature. Finally, from a managerial perspective, this research represents a significant contribution in establishing the importance of a TQM-oriented management approach to achieve Sustainability, providing insights and understanding to guide managers/decision-makers to enhance sustainability in quality improvement processes.

Keywords:

• Total quality management
• sustainability
• triple bottom line (TBL)
• critical success factors
• systematic literature review

Disclosure statement

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