Organizational Learning: A Mediating Factor between Technological Innovation and TQM

Organizations nowadays are faced with many competitive obstacles due to the rapid change in technology. Both practitioners and management theorists have called for innovation to take place in production processes and production lines as well as in management practices. Total quality management, also famously known as TQM, has long been established as a major management practices adopted by organizations word wide. However, recently, organizational learning dimensions have also gained popularity in organizations. Furthermore, technological innovation has also gained considerable attention as vital in securing a sustainable competitive advantage in the business world. This study investigates the relationship between TQM, organizational learning and technological innovation. A conceptual model was developed with the adoption of the six TQM practices from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) (i.e. leadership, strategic planning, human resource management, customer focus, process management, and information analysis) to test of its relationship with both organizational learning and technological innovation respectively. Furthermore, the study also proposes that organizational learning acts as a mediating variable between these six TQM practices with technological innovation.