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The impact of quality management Impact of

quality
practices on knowledge management
practices
management processes: a study
of a social security corporation
in Jordan Received 22 August 2020
Revised 16 December 2020
26 January 2021
Ata Al Shraah 8 March 2021
Accepted 15 March 2021
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, The Hashemite University,
Zarqa, Jordan
Ayman Abu-Rumman
Business School, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan
Faisal Al Madi
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, The Hashemite University,
Zarqa, Jordan
Fawwaz Ali Farhan Alhammad
Amman College For Financial and Managerial Science, Al-Balqa’ Applied University,
Amman, Jordan, and
Ayah Ahmad AlJboor
Head of Quality Assurance Department, Social Security Corporation (SSC),
Amman, Jordan

Abstract
Purpose – This study aimed to investigate the impact of total quality practices on knowledge management
(KM) processes across a Social Security Corporation (SSC) in Jordan and explore the best approach to improve
KM processes using quality management.
Design/methodology/approach – This study followed a quantitative methodology: a conceptual model was
developed based on an extensive review of the related literature; an online survey was developed and
distributed using the SSC’s intranet; and 384 surveys were completed and used in the statistical analysis. The
two-stage approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze and interpret the data, and
was used to validate the conceptual model of this research.
Findings – Based on the statistical analysis it was found that six out of seven independent factors relating to
quality management practices were confirmed to have a significant impact on the knowledge management
processes (KMPs). Building upon the findings an agenda for improving KM processes using quality
management is proposed.
Originality/value – This study was conducted in one organization namely the SSC because it is the largest
public service organization in Jordan and offers compulsory services. The inclusion of other public
organizations and companies may reflect different findings. Future research may collect data from other
service industries to get a more comprehensive perspective from developing countries such as Jordan.
Moreover, the population of this study included only the General Director, General Director Assistants, and
Administrative Managers. Front-line employees were excluded from the data collection because the study was
conducted solely from a managerial perspective.
Keywords Quality practices, Knowledge management, Customer focus, Jordan
Paper type Research paper

The TQM Journal

The authors are thankful to all the associated personnel, who contributed for this study. © Emerald Publishing Limited
1754-2731
Funding: The study is not funded through any source. DOI 10.1108/TQM-08-2020-0183
TQM 1. Introduction
In modern times, especially in a rapidly changing environment, organizations need to adopt
managerial philosophies that guarantee their long-term survival; total quality management
(QM) and knowledge management (KM) are examples of such philosophies. There are
particular environmental conditions that serve as driving forces for organizations to adopt
managerial approaches that help them outperform their competitors, such as globalization,
dramatic changes in customer needs and expectations, competitors’ competencies and their
behaviors, and widespread development of information technology. The knowledge-based
view of an organization considers intellectual resources as an important asset for sustainable
competitive advantage as these types of resources are difficult to imitate (Alavi and Leinder,
2001). In light of this, organizations that manage their knowledge resources effectively can
expect to reap a wide range of benefits such as faster decision making, the avoidance of
redundant effort, an acceleration in the speed of delivery and response to customers, and
improved organizational efficiency, effectiveness and innovation (Chang and Lin, 2015;
Apornak and Keramati, 2017). Furthermore, in this era of rapidly advancing technology and
globalization, the notion of KM is one of the fastest developing parts of the corporate sector
(Areed et al., 2021). KM processes understand knowledge as being created, shared, and
applied through interpersonal social relationships and appropriate organizational culture
relating to external networks that facilitate the gathering and absorption of external
knowledge. A culture that encourages employees to have the intention to ensure that
knowledge is created, stored, transferred, and applied is essential (Marchiori and Mendes,
2020; Chang and Lin, 2015).
The importance of knowledge management for organizations (Al-Shawabkeh et al., 2020).
Motivated the researchers to look for factors that contribute towards improving all processes
of KM. There is a broad consensus amongst researchers regarding the positive effect of
quality management practices on knowledge management processes (Skyrme and Amidon,
1997; Wong, 2005; Ooi et al., 2010; Yusr et al., 2017). QM and quality practices have been in use
for a long time, but the question remains as to which of these practices are critical for
improving organizational knowledge, and to what level are these practices important for
creating new knowledge (Apornak, 2019). Another group of researchers, however, question
the size of the impact of applying quality management practices on organizational
performance (Singh and Smith, 2004; Cole and Matsumiya, 2008; Pinho, 2008).
A thorough review of the literature revealed that there is a shortage of studies of this type
within the context of Middle East organizations (Roy and Mitra, 2018; Mitrovic et al., 2018;
Dzenopoljac et al., 2018), so this study aimed to contribute towards filling this research gap.
The Middle Eastern context is of particular interest given the unique nature of the workforce
in this region, which has a high proportion of expatriates from around the world, and because
of its distinctive socio-cultural and rapidly changing institutional arrangements (Budhwar
et al., 2019). The study specifically investigated QM practices on KM processes within a
Jordanian SSC and to identify which ones were perceived by managers as having the most
impact.

2. Literature review
2.1 Quality management practices
Kaynak (2003) defined quality management as a holistic management philosophy that
inspires all functions in the organization to strive for continuous improvement. According to
Addae-Korankye (2013), quality management practices are defined as vital techniques used
by organizations to enhance the level of a service’s quality provided to the customers to meet
their needs and expectations and increase their satisfaction accordingly. He also argues that
this is attained by integrating all quality-related functions throughout the organization.
Sharma et al. (2014) focused his definition of quality management practices on two aspects: Impact of
customers and competitors. He described quality management practices as the mean by quality
which organizations can pursue the desires of its customers by identifying their needs, at the
same time identifying the competitors’ alternatives to outperform them. Fatemi et al. (2016)
management
also found that quality management practices are those mechanisms through which an practices
organization can develop its productivity, control services and goods’ quality, improve
employees’ performance, and enhance its ability to move into the right direction. Tasie’s
(2016) study illustrated that total quality management practices can be considered as
guidelines for an organization to provide superior customer value and meet or exceed their
expectations through effective cooperation between an organization’s employees. He also
emphasized that total quality management does not only concern itself with mechanisms and
techniques that must be adopted by the organization’s management; it also depends on the
work environment and culture that is cultivated in its employees’ minds.
Many scholars have praised the benefits of implementing quality management
systems and their importance in improving organizational performance through a set of
practices such as senior management support, employee involvement, customer focus,
quality information availability, and others (Samson and Terziovski, 1999; Shan et al.,
2013). However, many critics, such as Fuchsberg (1992), have claimed that organizations
which have adopted quality management practices do not necessarily stand out from
those who have not, and propose that some QM practices require excessive effort and
time, increased paperwork, and has argued that the level of investment needed does not
justify the returns. Ezzamel (1994) also argued that quality management practices place
excessive emphasis on detailed written procedures which increases the amount of
paperwork, bureaucracy and level of formality. In this context, therefore, the core of QM,
as seen by the researchers, must be focused on customers’ needs and their perceptions
(Anil and Satish, 2019). This is in addition to the quality culture shared amongst an
organization’s members and the extent to which management adopts QM practices as a
means of survival and competition; it is about real actions, not just inspirational or
motivational slogans.

2.2 Quality in the service industry

Quality is a lifestyle; and so, needs to be fully integrated into everyday systems and processes
if long term benefits are to be achieved. Service industries, in particular, are impacted by
customers’ perceptions as they act as face-to-face quality inspectors. Mohanty and Behara
(1996) claimed that total quality management was centered in manufacturing companies
because it is easier to measure the performance of “hard goods.” However, Prajogo (2005)
emphasized that Total Quality Management (TQM) has since advanced beyond the
measurement of quality performance of manufactured products, and its focus has expanded
to cover the service organizations which have a vital role in the global economy.
Recent TQM arguments have investigated several aspects related to service quality. One
of the most popular arguments are those of Dow et al. (1999) and Flynn et al. (1995), who
classified QM into two categories: soft QM and hard QM. Soft QM relates to tacit, intangible,
and social practices that deal with people and relationships management, while hard QM
relates to tools and techniques used in quality management. Some scholars argue that service
firms put more emphasize on soft QM practices, especially those related to customer aspects
as customers judge the quality of services (Lenka et al., 2010).
While others such as Woon (2000) argued that service industries can adopt both the
soft and hard QM practices used in manufacturing industries with some customization,
which is a logical proposition as the core principles of TQM, which are essential for
achieving service quality and customer satisfaction, illustrated that both soft and hard
TQM QM practices are relevant to service as well as product sectors. Service rendering
organizations comprise of a broad spectrum of organizations such as those who provide
public services.
There are two opposing views regarding the applicability of adopting QM practices in the
public sectors (Stringham, 2004). Cohen and Eimmike (1994) see no problem with
implementing TQM principles in the public sector by investing in enhancing the skills of
human capital. However, Swiss (1992) considers the implementation of TQM principles in the
public sector as a waste of time since its works are restricted by legal requirements in addition
to the wide variety of customers which make the process of acquiring their feedback very
difficult and almost unattainable. Despite Swiss’s arguments, most public services
organizations continue to pay extra attention to the quality issues that enable them to
maintain their customer satisfaction (Apornak, 2017), eliminate waste, reduce the time
associated with re-work efforts, and enhance the maturity level of quality issues amongst
their employees (Al-Madi et al., 2013; Keramati et al., 2018).
From a researchers’ point of view, managing the quality of a service properly in an
organization can led to creating a distinguished organization that focuses on continuous
improvement and better-quality solutions. Commonly, distinguished organizations share
some characteristics such as focusing on teamwork and employee interaction, utilizing new
technology, encouraging effectiveness and minimizing waste, as well as, emphasizing the role
of quality service in the organization’s strategy (Alkhazali et al., 2019).

2.3 Knowledge management

Recently, the KM field has received significant interest due to its essential role in
organizational improvement and value creation (Massa and Testa, 2009; Abu- Rumman,
2018). KM emerged in the 1990s as a result of the transformation from hierarchical settings to
a knowledge-based culture in the structure of organizations. Knowledge utilization, sharing
and creation should be clearly understood by organizations to survive in today’s complex and
globalized marketplace. It also needs to be acknowledged that these complexities have
resulted from the development of knowledge transfer and communications technology
(Bennet and Bennet, 2004).
Researchers have introduced different views and definitions of KM. However, the common
understanding of KM is the best utilization of organizational and individual knowledge
resources. According to Allameh et al. (2011), KM can be defined as the capability of an
organization to create, capture, apply and develop organizational and people knowledge and
to disseminate it throughout the organization. KM can be seen from a more human
perspective such as the realization and appreciation of employees’ knowledge (Bennet and
Bennet, 2004). Moreover, KM aims to search for better ways to create, store, integrate, and
share knowledge (Bennet and Bennet, 2004). Davenport et al. (1998) considered KM as a tool
for exploiting, utilizing and developing knowledge as an intangible asset for the organization
with the central aim of furthering the organization’s objectives.
Similarly, Zwain (2012) defined KM as a process that enables organizations to identify,
acquire, convert, and apply important knowledge required for some vital organizational
activities such as problem-solving, dynamic learning, strategic planning and decision
making. Alavia and Leinder (2001) and Chang and Lin (2015) defined KM as the process of
knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application;
which is in line with the selected KM processes for this study. Equally, Becerra-Fernandez
and Sabherwal (2015) defined KM as the actions followed by management to maximize the
return from knowledge resources, specifically performing activities intended to discover,
capture, share and apply knowledge to leverage the impact of knowledge on achievement the
organization’s goals.
 (1) The increased interest and application of KM in organizations has derived from Impact of
several sources (Wiig, 1999; Al-Shqairat et al., 2020; Ode and Ayavoo, 2020) quality
Globalization and international competition: Most of the organizations today face
fierce competition accompanied with increasingly demanding customers who have
management
access to broad alternatives and substitutions. Therefore, efforts must be made to practices
improve organizational and employees’ knowledge in order to cope with this
challenge. Digital resources are considered critical success factors for sharing and
creating new knowledge about both competitors’ competencies and customers’ needs
around the world.
(2) Lean systems: Organizations are required to eliminate non-added value activities to
survive in marketplaces. Improving organizational and employees’ knowledge is
essential in creating knowledge workers that can work “smarter.”
(3) Sophisticated suppliers: suppliers have become more innovative and continue to
improve their competencies and capabilities to produce outstanding products
(Ahmadizadeh-Tourzani et al., 2018; Al-Shqairat, et al., 2020). Therefore,
organizations must fully understand these issues and take appropriate actions to
manage existing and potential knowledge in a way that can enable them to take
advantage of such opportunities.
(4) Employee turnover: Workforce is movable. Knowledge workers will not stay at one
organization for their entire career. Thus, knowledge will be lost, and the continuity of
the organization’s knowledge will be a problem. Sometimes these workers might have
knowledge important to competitors. Therefore, organizations must have strategies
to manage and save knowledge and keep the organization on track.
(5) New technology: Technological advances have increased the ability to capture data,
information, and knowledge that exceeds human capacity. The vast amount of
information and knowledge obtained from new technologies will not be successfully
used until the value of knowledge is clearly appreciated by workers and
organizations, and this appreciation can be done through KM.
In this study, based on the aforementioned definitions (Allameh et al., 2011; Zwain, 2012;
Chang and Lin, 2015), KM has been defined as a dynamic combination of specific processes
which include knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer, and knowledge
application, by all organizational members in order to exploit the definite knowledge that
leads to optimizing organizational performance.

2.4 Knowledge management in public sector organizations

Drucker (1993) stated that knowledge is the only meaningful resource especially for the “post-
capitalist” society, while other resources such as land, labor, and capital are secondary
resources. He clarified that knowledge becomes “the resource” rather than “a resource.” He
also suggested that the most valuable assets for organizations are the productivity of
knowledge works and knowledge workers; those who rely on their jobs on knowledge as the
main capital. Biswas et al. (2017) clarified in their research that public sector organizations are
highly knowledge-intensive and most of their workers are knowledge workers. This type of
organization is the largest consumer and producer of knowledge; hence, managing this
knowledge is unavoidable.
They have illustrated that a KM program which is not fully supported by these kinds of
organizations due to its bureaucratic nature and rigid horizontal structure, makes the process
of sharing and transforming knowledge difficult and restricted. The recent research in this
field suggests that public sector organizations should give more priority to providing
TQM services to the country’s citizens over maintaining bureaucracy and giving preference to
political needs (Biswas et al., 2017). They have emphasized that the adoption of KM enables
organizations to produce a massive amount of services at a lower cost; the more services
provided; the lower cost incurred which means economies of scale. They have further
revealed the benefits of adopting KM in public sector organizations is that it may increase the
opportunity of getting external funding for development projects as these organizations are
usually engaged in many such initiatives. Besides, KM helps public sector organizations to
retain valuable tacit knowledge and prevent it from leaving the entire organization by
archiving knowledge and making it available and accessible to new staff (Jain, 2009; McEvoy
et al., 2017; Biswas et al., 2017; Al-Shqairat et al., 2020). In addition to the above benefits, KM
reduces the cost of training new staff as they can easily learn from the archived knowledge
related to work procedures and instructions, as well as from their co-workers. Furthermore,
KM enables organizations to become more innovative and open to sharing best practice as it
encourages the practices of teamwork, employee learning, and enhancing decision-making
skills; Hence, this will speed up the responsiveness of an organization to its customers
(Jain, 2009).

2.5 Knowledge management processes

Many researchers have identified key dimensions of KMPs. These dimensions include: the
creation, storage, transfer and application of knowledge (Alavi and Leinder, 2001; Chang
and Lin, 2015; Al-Shqairat, et al., 2020); the acquisition, innovation, protection, integration,
and dissemination of knowledge (Lee and Yang, 2000); the, conversion, application, and
protection of knowledge (Gold et al., 2001); the creation, accumulation, sharing, utilization,
and internalization knowledge (Lee et al., 2005); the identification, collection, organizing,
storage, and sharing knowledge to others (Kiessling et al., 2009); the acquisition,
dissemination, and application of knowledge (Ooi, 2009); the identification, acquisition,
storage, sharing, and implementation of knowledge (Zwain,2012); and the discovery,
capture, sharing, and application (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal, 2015). Screening
these diverse views enabled the researchers to group them into four processes: creation,
storage, transfer and application of knowledge. The diagram in Figure 1 below, explains the
KMPs to be considered in this research.
Based on studies by Alavi and Leinder (2001) and Chang and Lin (2015), knowledge
discovery (which is represented by combination and socialization (Becerra-Fernandez and
Sabherwal, 2015)), and knowledge capture (which is represented by externalization and
internalization (Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal, 2015)), as a single dimension to be
referred to knowledge creation which consists the four sub-processes of combination,
socialization, externalization, and internalization (Nonaka et al., 2000), and other three main
processes of KM, which are storage, transfer, and application to make a total of four processes
of KM to be considered in this research.

3. Problem statement
The importance of KM comes from the fact that it provides organizations with the
opportunities to compete effectively in the marketplace and to outperform their competitors
by obtaining a competitive advantage. It also enables organizations to adopt and facilitate
innovations of new products and services (Davenport et al., 1998). Thus, organizations realize
the importance of managing knowledge by creating, store, transfer and apply relevant
knowledge to respond to the intensive changes and challenges that will help in long-term
survival (Wong and Aspinwall, 2005; Zwain, 2012).
There are a range of perspectives on how to enhance organizational capabilities and
competences such as TQM to better manage knowledge. Hung et al. (2010) revealed that TQM
 Impact of
Knowledge discovery Knowledge capture
(Combination, (Externalization,
quality
Socialization) Internalization) management
practices

Knowledge creation

Knowledge storage Knowledge transfer

Figure 1.
Knowledge application Knowledge
management processes

enhances the relationship between knowledge and innovation. Moreover, Molina et al. (2007)
explained that TQM supports the processes of KM in any organization through
documentation, analysis, and extraction of conclusions. Furthermore, Stewart and Waddell
(2008) they argued that TQM predicts KM. However, many scholars such as Honarpour et al.
(2018), Hsu and Shen (2005) argued that TQM and KM have shared objectives and principles.
Hsu and Shen (2005, p. 351) stated that “the similarities include results orientation, people-
based management, teamwork, leadership and delighting the customer. The differences
consist of continuous improvement and management by fact because KM focuses more on
building a culture to support knowledge generation and sharing.” Based on the
interdependency between TQM and KM, the key question is “what is the best approach
for improving KM processes in a knowledge-driven environment through TQM practices?”.
Consequently, the current study aimed to explore and to test this relationship in SSC because
SSC has good experiences in both TQM and KM.
An SSC is one of the most important entities in the government sector in Jordan; it engages
in a wide range of relationships with policymakers, government ministries, the private sector
and community organizations. It contributes to achieving a state of social and economic
security in Jordan. The interaction within and between these entities, and the importance of
this interaction on the country, polices and at a service level, shed light on the importance of
KM in the SSC. The SSC has a good reputation for its QM practices and its use of mature
information and communication technology. Recently, the SSC has won the King Abdullah II
award of excellence in government performance and transparency, which is one of the most
important awards in Jordan that recognizes the application of QM concepts and practices in
public and private sectors. This study examines the impact of QM practices as vital enablers
of KM and its management processes in the context of a public sector organization within the
Middle East.
Despite the SSC having a good understanding of QM practices and KM processes,
anecdotal evidence suggested there was no clear framework for this within the organization
TQM or clarity over their relationship. This study therefore aimed to investigate if- QM practices
(leadership and management commitment, customer focus, people management, process
management, strategic planning, rewards and recognition, and employee involvement) have
a real impact on the KM processes (creation, storage, transfer and application) in the SSC in
Jordan. It aimed to determine this from the perspective of its management employees.

3.1 Study model

The conceptual model of the study illustrated in Figure 2 the dimensions of TQM practices
were adopted from the following studies: Cha (2019), Salhieh and Abu-Doleh (2015), Wu (2015),
Shan et al. (2013), Talib et al. (2013), Zwain (2012), Ismail Ababaneh (2010), Zeng et al. (2007) and
Lakhal et al. (2006). Leadership and management commitment; customer focus; people
management; strategic planning; processes management; rewards and recognition; and
employee involvement all acted as the independent variables. The KM processes were adopted
from the following studies: Andriani et al. (2019), Chang and Lin (2015), Zwain (2012), Hoe
(2006), Bhatt et al. (2005) and Al-Madi et al. (2013) and represented the dependent variables. The
model aimed to demonstrate how the dimensions and processes may fit together and impact on
each other. This model has been constructed based on the assumption that, consistent with
other studies, TQM has a reciprocal relationship with KM (Honarpour et al., 2018).
By summarizing the previous studies and determining the main quality management
practices that already applied at the SSC in Jordan; there was a need to explore the impact and
role of these practices in KMPs. This model was validated using a two-stage approach of
Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

4. Methodology
The main objective of this research was to investigate the impact of QM practices on KM
processes within a Jordanian SSC from the perspective of management employees. The SSC
has a budget of more than US$17 billion (SSC, 2019).
In spite of huge investment in the SSC by the Jordanian Government, there is a shortage of
studies about quality and knowledge management (Roy and Mitra, 2018; Mitrovic et al., 2018;
Dzenopoljac et al., 2018). Due to the significant size of the SSC, this research employed a
quantitative methodology through the use of a questionnaire survey issued to management
level employees within the organization. This provided an effective, yet pragmatic, approach

Independent Variable:
Quality Management Practices
Dependent Variable:
(QMPs)
ƒ Leadership & Management
Knowledge Management Processes
(KMPs)
Commitment (LD) ƒ Knowledge Creaon (KC)

ƒ Customer Focus (CF) ƒ Knowledge Storage (KS)

ƒ People Management (PM) ƒ Knowledge Transfer (KT)

ƒ Strategic Planning (SP) ƒ Knowledge Applicaons (KA)

ƒ Processes Management (PRM)

ƒ Rewards & Recognion (RR)

Figure 2. ƒ Employee Involvement (EIM)

Research model
to collecting the required data. The two-stage approach of SEM was employed to analyze and Impact of
interpret the data. In addition, the SEM enabled the conceptual model of this research to be quality
validated.
management
practices
4.1 Questionnaire
A questionnaire was designed to achieve the purposes of this study. All queries in the
questionnaire were adapted from the literature review that had been used in building the
research model as illustrated above. All questions in the questionnaire were measured using a
perceptual measure based on a five-point Likert scale to ensure consistency and promote ease
of data analysis. The perceptual measures were in the form of attitude statements about the
importance of the factors where 1 5 strongly disagree, 2 5 disagree, 3 5 neutral, 4 5 agree,
5 5 strongly agree. The questionnaire consisted of (52) statements, divided into (36)
statements measuring QM practices and (16) statements measuring KM processes.

4.2 Population and sample

To determine a representative response rate from a given population, the researchers referred
to the indicative table by Sekaran and Bougie (2016), which showed that an appropriate
response rate for a population of 1,300 should not be less than (297) respondents given a
combination of consideration to precision, variability and confidence levels. Sekaran and
Bougie’s (2016) sampling tables cater for both large and small populations and provide a
pragmatic way of identifying appropriate sample size. The sample size for the current study
was 384, which means the sample is representative.
The population of interest was defined as all employees working in the SSC in Jordan
which comprised of 1,300 employees. SSC employs 92 in the top management, 491 in the
middle level of management, and 717 in the lower-level management. Stratified random
sampling was applied to achieve the objectives of current study. “Stratified random
sampling involves stratifying the elements along meaningful levels and taking
proportionate or disproportionate samples from the strata. This sampling design is more
efficient than the simple random sampling design because, for the same sample size, each
important segment of the population is better represented, and more valuable and
differentiated information is obtained with respect to each group” (Sekaran and Bougie,
2016, p. 245). Based on the proportionate stratified random sampling, the sampling
percentages for the current study should be taken as follows: 0.55 from the lower level, 0.38
from the middle level of management and 0.07 from the top level of management. This
means that the number of employees in the sample were 212, 145 and 27 for lower level,
middle level and top level of management, respectively.
On that basis, electronic questionnaires were distributed to employees using the SSC’s
intranet which was promoted to employees via internal briefings and communications.
Overall, (384) employees responded to the questionnaire. It is worth pointing out that this
method enabled employees to respond to the questionnaire only once. Additionally, this
method also required a response to all questionnaire statements. Consequently, all completed
questionnaires were valid for statistical analysis.

5. Data analysis, results and discussion

5.1 Respondents’ profile
Of the 384 respondents, 65% were male and 35% were female. Most of the employees’ ages
were between 40 and 50 years old 77.9%, while 10.4% of respondents were over 50 years old,
which indicates that most of SSC’s employees have the required maturity to be active and
innovative. Most of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree 50.8%, and 20.1 % had
TQM postgraduate, this is a clear indicator on the interest of SSC in employing a qualified staff. 65.8
% of the respondents have a work experience more than 10 years, this indicates that the study
sample had a relatively a good level of experience. According to the respondents’ managerial
level, 212 respondents were from the lowest level, 145 respondents were from middle level,
and 27 respondents were from top level, with proportions 55%, 38% and 7% respectively. It
is concluded from the characteristics of the sample that the data collected is reliable and valid
for analysis and interpretation.

5.2 Structural Equation Modeling analysis (SEM)

The two-stage approach of SEM was applied in the study to validate the conceptual model
proposed. In the first stage: measurement model, eleven constructs, and 53 scale items were
subjected to testing in the confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, as a multidimensional
construct, knowledge management processes (KMPs) were treated as a second order
construct while its associated sub-dimensions [Knowledge creation (KC); Knowledge Storage
(KS); Knowledge Transfer (KT); Knowledge Application (KA)] were tested as first order
constructs (see Figure 3). Four sub-dimensions were noticed to adequately load on KMPs with
a value not less than 0.90 as recorded to KA.
Following this, the whole model with all constructs was tested and the yielded results of
the model fitness as presented in Table 1 which largely supported the goodness of fit captured
in the measurement model. In details, all fit indices considered in the study were found within
their recommended level as follow: goodness-of-fit index (GFI) 5 0.901; adjusted goodness-of-
fit index (AGFI) 5 0.837; comparative fit index (CFI) 5 0.967; normed chi-square (CMIN/
DF) 5 2.231; normed-fit index (NFI) 5 0.948; and root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA) 5 0.063 (Hair et al., 2010).
In terms of construct validity, as presented in Table 2, all scale items were significantly
able to download on their targeted constructs. Accurately, all scale items had a standardized
regression weight value (factor loading) not less than 0.50 as highly recommended by Hair
et al. (2010).
The average variance extracted (AVE) was also inspected for all constructs as presented
in Table 3. All factors captured AVE values not less than 0.50 as suggested by Hair et al.
(2010). The highest AVE value was recorded by KMPs with value 0.878 while the lowest value

0.69 0.62 0.72 0.68 0.69 0.74 0.59 0.63

0.85 0.83 0.77

0.83 0.83
0.78 0.86 0.80
0.81 0.88

0.73 0.75 0.73

0.56 0.65 0.70 0.59 0.64

0.85 0.87 0.85
0.92 0.90 0.94
0.75 0.81 0.84 0.90
0.77 0.80

0.96
Figure 3. 0.95
Validation the sub-
dimensions of KMPs
Characteristic Classification of characteristics Frequency Percentage
Impact of
quality
Gender Male 242 63 management
Female 142 37
Total 384 100 practices
Age Less than 30 Years 45 11.7
30 – Less than 40 years 111 28.9
40 – Less than 50 years 188 49
50 years and above 40 10.4
Total 384 100
Education Level Diploma 112 29.1
Bachelor 195 50.8
Postgraduate 77 20.1
Total 384 100
Work Experience Less than 5 years 80 20.8
5 – less than 10 years 111 28.9
10 – less than 15 years 91 23.7
15 – less than 20 years 31 8.1
20 years and above 71 18.5
Total 384 100
Management Level Lower-level management 212 55 Table 1.
Middle-level management 145 38 Demographic
Top management 27 7 characteristics of
Total 384 100 respondents (n 5 384)

Fit indices Recommended value Yielded value

CMIN/DF ≤ 3.000 2.971

GFI ≥ 0.90 0.901
AGFI ≥ 0.80 0.837
NFI ≥ 0.90 0.948 Table 2.
CFI ≥ 0.90 0.967 Fit indices of the
RMSEA ≤ 0.08 0.063 measurement model

was observed in the case of LD with a value of 0.532. This, in turn, supports the validity of the
scale items used in the current study.
As for the reliability of the constructs, both composite reliability (CR) and Cronbach’s
alpha were examined. The results in this regard support both as all constructs were able to
have CR and Cronbach’s alpha values higher than 0.70 as recommended by Hair et al. (2010),
Nunnally (1978) and Fornell and Larcker (1981). The highest CR and Cronbach’s alpha value
was noticed in the case of KMPs with CR value 0.966 and Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.964. On
the other hand, the minimum value of CR (0.862) and Cronbach’s alpha value (0.859) was
reordered in the case of PRM (see Table 3). The final request to assure an adequate level of
construct validity and reliability was related to the level of discriminant validity extracted
between constructs. As shown in Table 4, all values of the inter-correlation between
constructs were less than the squared roots of AVE of the targeted construct.

5.3 Structural model analyses

The second stage of the SEM analyses was to validate the conceptual model proposed and
test the impact of the independent factors: RR, LD, CF, PM, PRM, SP, and EIM on the
TQM Estimate Estimate

KA ← KMPs 0.944 PM5 ← PM 0.709

KM ← KMPs 0.919 PM4 ← PM 0.799
KS ← KMPs 0.948 PM3 ← PM 0.801
KT ← KMPs 0.936 PM2 ← PM 0.814
KS1 ← KS 0.822 PM1 ← PM 0.852
KS2 ← KS 0.843 PRM1 ← PRM 0.822
KS3 ← KS 0.783 PRM2 ← PRM 0.803
KS4 ← KS 0.810 PRM3 ← PRM 0.689
KT1 ← KT 0.747 PRM4 ← PRM 0.707
KT2 ← KT 0.816 PRM5 ← PRM 0.700
KT3 ← KT 0.837 SP1 ← SP 0.810
KT4 ← KT 0.772 SP2 ← SP 0.832
KT5 ← KT 0.787 SP3 ← SP 0.821
KA3 ← KA 0.854 SP4 ← SP 0.860
KA2 ← KA 0.861 SP5 ← SP 0.799
KA1 ← KA 0.857 RR5 ← RR 0.840
KM4 ← KM 0.826 RR4 ← RR 0.705
KM3 ← KM 0.846 RR3 ← RR 0.764
KM2 ← KM 0.780 RR2 ← RR 0.830
KM1 ← KM 0.835 RR1 ← RR 0.854
LD6 ← LD 0.798 EIM5 ← EIM 0.835
LD5 ← LD 0.732 EIM4 ← EIM 0.731
LD4 ← LD 0.748 EIM3 ← EIM 0.820
LD3 ← LD 0.693 EIM2 ← EIM 0.833
LD2 ← LD 0.703 EIM1 ← EIM 0.808
LD1 ← LD 0.698 CF2 ← CF 0.816
CF5 ← CF 0.650 CF1 ← CF 0.770
CF4 ← CF 0.758 PM5 ← PM 0.709
Table 3. CF3 ← CF 0.811 PM4 ← PM 0.799
Standardized CF2 ← CF 0.816 PM3 ← PM 0.801
regression weights CF1 ← CF 0.770 PM2 ← PM 0.814

CR Cronbach’s alpha AVE

RR 0.899 0.898 0.641

KMPs 0.966 0.964 0.878
LD 0.872 0.871 0.532
CF 0.874 0.872 0.583
PM 0.896 0.895 0.634
Table 4. PRM 0.862 0.859 0.557
Constructs validity and SP 0.914 0.913 0.680
reliability EIM 0.903 0.902 0.650

dependent factor KMPs. Similar to measurement model, structural model was also
adequately fit the observed data as all fit indices exist within their threshold level (i.e.,
CMIN/DF 5 2.411; GFI 5 0.90; AGFI 5 0.814; NFI 5 0.901; CFI 5 0.952; and RMSEA 5 0.068.
As shown in Figure 2, the model was also account for a large portion of the variance in the
KMPs with an R2 value of 0.73. This, in turn, supports the predictive validity of the current
study model.
 As for the relationship testing, the results of path coefficient analyses demonstrated that Impact of
out of seven independent factors, six were approved to have a significant impact on the quality
KMPs. The most significant factor predicting KMPs was EIM (γ 5 0.54, p < 0.000) followed by
SP (γ 5 0.42, p < 0.000), and then RR (γ 5 0.32, p < 0.000). LD was also able to significantly
management
predict KMPs (γ 5 0.29, p < 0.000). Another significant relationship was also noticed between practices
PRM (γ 5 0.20, p < 0.016) and KMPs. A significant but negative relationship was observed
between PM (γ 5 0.116, p < 0.045) and KMPs. However, the yielded results disapproved the
relationship between CF (γ 5 0.02, p < 0.737) and KMPs. Further details are provided in
Table 5 (see Figure 4).

6. Discussion
Employee Involvement (EI) practice scored the highest rank between the seven QM practices
with an estimation value of 0.542; this means that there is a lack of sufficient autonomy for
staff to make decisions regarding their work, as well as inadequate participation of staff in
making decisions related to their work. This result is moderately consistent with the findings
of Schneider et al. (1998), Cheung and To (2010) and Zwain (2012). Banerjee (2018) emphasized
that employee involvement is a process for empowering employees to participate in
management decision making and therefore relevant to KM (see Tables 6 and 7).
Strategic planning (SP) achieved the second rank, with the estimation level of (0.423). This
result referred to the SSC’s efforts in encouraging its staff to be committed to improving the
quality of the delivered services through its inspiring vision, as well as its efforts in adopting
a comprehensive strategic planning process that was concerned with both short-term and
long-term planning. This result concurs with the view of Simandan (2018); Umulisa
et al. (2015).
Leadership and management commitment (LD) achieved the fourth position with an
estimation rate of (0.285). This indicates that LD supports KM through TQ practices, but this
subsidization is still in the low level. This means that the SSC is trying to cultivate a culture of
commitment of moving towards best practices. This result conforms with views of Shan et al.
(2013) and Al-ali and Abu-Rumman (2019).
Customer focus (CF) achieved an estimation rate of (0.023). This result was very low
because the SSC is a public organization, and its services are compulsory for all firms and
organization in both public and private sectors. Moreover, there are no competitors for the
SSC. The organization tries to adopt a private-sector approach in customer care, but a
monopolistic mentality is still dominant.
Sharma et al. (2014) focused his definition of QM practices on two aspects: customers and
competitors. He described QM practices as the mean by which an organization can pursue the

RR KMPs LD CF PM PRM SP EIM

RR 0.801
KMPs 0.701 0.937
LD 0.721 0.694 0.730
CF 0.712 0.721 0.684 0.763
PM 0.761 0.654 0.621 0.635 0.796
PRM 0.731 0.638 0.629 0.598 0.701 0.746
SP 0.754 0.547 0.621 0.614 0.654 0.621 0.825
EIM 0.791 0.698 0.624 0.704 0.687 0.623 0.674 0.806
Note(s): Diagonal values are squared roots of AVE; off-diagonal values are the estimates of inter-correlation Table 5.
between the latent constructs Discriminant validity
TQM
0.54 0.45 0.57 0.53 0.50 0.55 0.44 0.48 0.39 0.50 0.54 0.42 0.45
0.57 0.59 0.58

0.74 0.67 0.71 0.75

0.75 0.77
0.78 0.76
0.75 0.71 0.74 0.66 0.79 0.69 0.62 0.73 0.65
0.70 0.67

0.88 0.84 0.87

0.89
0.73

0.32
0.54 0.69
0.66
0.87
0.83 0.47
0.68
0.69 0.81
0.83 0.20 0.62
0.79
0.67 0.42
0.82 0.82 0.67
0.73
0.53 0.87
–0.16 0.75
0.84
0.29 0.02
0.71

0.71 0.72 0.80

0.72 0.79
0.51 0.51 0.52 0.63
0.81 0.82
0.85 0.80 0.84
0.65 0.73 0.65 0.71 0.67

0.86 0.68
0.71 0.81 0.77 0.85 0.84 0.71 0.61 0.80 0.81 0.81
0.69 0.67 0.76 0.74

0.50 0.48 0.44 0.57 0.55 0.65 0.60 0.73 0.70 0.50 0.37 0.75 0.64 0.65 0.66 0.47
Figure 4.
Validation the
conceptual model

Hypothesized path Estimate S.E. C.R. p

KMPs ← EIM 0.542 0.050 6.449 ***

KMPs ← SP 0.423 0.062 4.992 ***
KMPs ← LD 0.285 0.063 3.413 ***
KMPs ← CF 0.023 0.066 0.336 0.737
Table 6. KMPs ← PM 0.162 0.059 2.009 0.045
Results of the path KMPs ← PRM 0.197 0.062 2.420 0.016
coefficient analyses KMPs ← RR 0.324 0.048 4.119 ***

desires of its customers by identifying their needs, whilst at the same time identifying the
competitors’ alternatives to ultimately outperform them. This result opposes the views of
Guibaud (2015), Daniel et al. (2012) and Zwain (2012).
People management (PM) achieved the lowest rank of estimation with the level of ( 0.162),
which means that the SSC has a number of legal issues practicing human resources
management. The monopolistic nature of the SSC’s services as a public sector palliates the Impact of
low level of attentiveness in PM. This result does not concur with the views of Talib et al. quality
(2013), and Al-Ali and Abu-Rumman (2019).
Process management practice (PRM) achieved an estimation rate of (0.197) which comes in
management
the fifth position. This result is reasonable and indicates that there is a restricted role of PRM practices
in knowledge management. Despite the effort exerted by the SSC in documenting its
operating procedures and making them available to all users, this result indicated that PRM
has some technical and lawful problems. However, this result supports the views of Rummler
et al. (2009) and Kaynak (2003).
Reward and recognition practice (RR) achieved a rate of estimation (0.324). This result
indicates that there is a reasonable practice of RR, but it is still weak. This result was
consistent with Imran et al. (2014). Imran et al. (2014) indicated that motivation through
reward and recognition is an excellent practice for encouraging people to achieve the
organization’s goals and to enhance intellectual capital.
Relative to KM as a dependent variable, all sub-dimensions [Knowledge creation (KC);
Knowledge Storage (KS); Knowledge Transfer (KT); Knowledge Application (KA)] were noticed
to adequately load on KMPs with more than 0.90 as recorded to KA. This result supports the
views of Biswas et al. (2017), Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal (2015), Al-Adaileh (2013), Shan
et al. (2013) and Zwain (2012) who also noted an association between these factors.

7. Conclusions, limitations and future research

7.1 Conclusions
The overall objective of this research was to investigate the impact of total quality practices
on knowledge management processes across the SSC, whilst also exploring the best approach
to improve KM processes using quality management. The conceptual model of this study was
validated using a two-stage approach of SEM. The results of this study revealed that:
(1) Even though the SSC’s has achieved the requirements of different quality awards
(globally and locally), there remain some areas of weaknesses in some aspects such as
customer focus (CF) and human resource management (PM).
(2) The extent to which the impact of QM practices on the KM processes enhances the
excellence culture in public services such as the SSC in Jordan as a developing
country. However, excellence culture needs more attention to be deployed through CF
and PM, which means that the SSC’s leadership requires more awareness about the
importance of the relationship between knowledge and quality.
(3) The results indicate that the SSC should focus on teamwork and boosting team spirit
to motivate employees to share in strategic planning and to develop their potential in
processes management.

CR AVE MSV ASV RR KMPs LD CF PM PRM SP EIM

RR 0.899 0.641 0.845 0.691 0.801

KMPs 0.966 0.878 0.812 0.721 0.872 0.937
LD 0.872 0.532 0.826 0.764 0.806 0.866 0.730
CF 0.874 0.583 0.814 0.643 0.712 0.746 0.902 0.763
PM 0.896 0.634 0.805 0.742 0.848 0.805 0.895 0.870 0.796
PRM 0.862 0.557 0.856 0.753 0.821 0.859 0.909 0.828 0.897 0.746 Table 7.
SP 0.914 0.680 0.856 0.754 0.827 0.883 0.905 0.828 0.872 0.925 0.825 Summary of SEM
EIM 0.903 0.650 0.845 0.703 0.919 0.901 0.830 0.704 0.837 0.830 0.833 0.806 analysis
TQM (4) Employee involvement (EIM) has a reasonable estimation with value (0.542) in the
path coefficient analysis; but there appears to be a lack of sufficient autonomy for
staff to make regular decisions regarding their work.
(5) The SSC has a transparent system for either rewarding or punishing its employees,
additionally, the SSC is highly caring in encouraging and rewarding any excellent
contributions provided by the employees. However, the rewarding, recognition, and
transparent system have not had a significant impact on CF and PM.
(6) The SSC has a number of legal problems in relation to practicing human resources
management. The monopolistic nature of the SSC’s services as a public sector
palliates the low level of attentiveness in PM.
(7) If there are no competitors for public organizations such as the SSC, a monopolistic
mentality in customer care will dominant. Consequently, all practices of TQ will be
negatively affected.
(8) The impact results among EIM, SP, and KMPs indicated that the SSC has a
respectable level of intellectual capital, but this capital should be invested in
improving front line issues such as customer services.
Due to the shortage of studies of this type within the context of Middle East organizations,
this study has made a useful contribution towards filling this research gap and adding to the
growing body of evidence in this field of work which has practical implications for managers
and policy makers.

7.2 Limitations and future research

The authors are conscious that there were some limitations in the study, which can be
considered for future studies. The SSC in Jordan was selected as the service organization to be
surveyed because of its importance as it serves more than 1.4 million insured persons and
200,000 pensioners (SSC annual report, 2019). Therefore, future research may collect data from
other service industries to generate research that is more comprehensive from Middle Eastern
countries such as Jordan. Moreover, it would be beneficial if future research was conducted in
other types of organizations using a similar organizational environment or framework. Also,
there are many issues associated with the KM in the SSC such as absorptive capacity and
organizational learning that could be explored further. Another limitation related to the fact
that the population of this study included only management level employees and, therefore it
may be worthwhile to conduct future research with front line staff working at the lower levels
in the organization to gain their perspectives of QM/TQM and KM.

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About the authors

Ata Al Shraah is Associate Professor at Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, the
Hashemite University, Jordan. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and an MBA/
Business Administration from the University of Jordan. He also holds a PhD from the University of the
West of England. His current research interest is in the area of Technology Transferring, Corporate
Strategy, Absorptive Capacity, E-Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Internet
banking, and Mobile banking, Production Management. His work has been published in many
international journals such as European Journal of Business and Management, Journal of Management
Research, Journal of Economics and Engineering, International Journal of Management and International
Journal of Business and Social Science. Ata Al Shraah is the corresponding author and can be contacted
at: ata@hu.edu.jo
Ayman Abu-Rumman (PhD), as the Head of Department and Lecturer in Business Administration at
Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan, the author specializes in human resources, strategic planning
and management, project management, total quality management, operations management and crisis
management. The author has a vast amount of management and research experience both within Jordan
and in the UK.
Faisal Al Madi is Associate Professor at Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences,
Hashemite University, Jordan. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and an MBA/
Business Administration from the Yarmouk University. He also holds a PhD from Salford University,
UK. His current research interest is in the area of Corporate Strategy, Knowledge Management,
Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership, Organisational Culture. His work has been
published in many International Journals such as European Journal of Business and Management. He
also works as a General Register of Hashemite University.
TQM Fawwaz Ali Farhan Alhammad is Associate Professor of Tourism Marketing at the college of
Business Administration (CBA), University of Business and Technology (UBT). Furthermore, Dr.
Alhammad is the College Quality Coordinator, He was awarded his PhD in Tourism Marketing from
Coventry University, UK. In 2007, Dr. Alhammad has published several research papers in the field of
Tourism and marketing in international refereed journals. His research interests are Local Community
Empowerment and Involvement in Tourism, SMEs Marketing, Tourism Research Methodologies,
Branding Cross-Cultural Differences and E-marketing, and TQM. Dr. Alhammad has supervised and
examined many MBA dissertations in different marketing and management areas, and has conducted
peer- review activities in many international refereed journals and conferences. He had worked as an
instructor in business and marketing for over 6 years. Dr. Alhammad has excellent academic skills and
experience in Business Administration and Marketing in UK and Jordan. Dr. Alhammad is an effective
and successful communicator, combined with active listening skills; who enjoys establishing positive
relationships with a wide variety of people, from all backgrounds and cultures, is a committed and hard
professional worker who is passionate about what he does. Dr. Alhammad achieved several goals and
targets as well as high-quality consultation services in marketing and training for various businesses at
national and international levels.
Ayah Ahmad AlJboor is Head of department, Quality Department, Social Security Corporation
(SSC), Jordan. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in industrial engineering from Hashemite University and
an MBA/Business Administration from the Al-Balqa Applied University. His current research interest
is in the area of Project Evaluation Design and Process Management, Operation Research, Projects
and Production Management, Corporate Strategy, Total Quality management, Statistical Analysis and
Organizational Structure. She has an excellent experience in business research types, processes and
their approaches (qualitative and quantitative).

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