The Synergistic Role of Total Quality Management and Knowledge Management in Achieving Sustainable Business Practices

The increasingly unpredictable business environment compels organizations to incorporate sustainability into their strategic management, simultaneously balancing economic, social, and environmental objectives. This research aims to analyze the direct and indirect impacts of total quality management (TQM) and knowledge management (KM) on sustainability management, explicitly addressing economic, social, and environmental dimensions within Indonesian business organizations. The novelty of this paper lies in its empirical demonstration that TQM significantly influences KM, and subsequently sustainability performance, presenting KM as a critical mediator enhancing the effectiveness of TQM practices. Using a quantitative approach based on responses from 389 employees across various industries in Greater Jakarta, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to validate the conceptual model. The results reveal a distinctive pattern where TQM positively impacts economic and environmental sustainability directly but requires KM as a mediator to effectively address the social dimension. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating TQM with KM to achieve comprehensive sustainability management, particularly highlighting KM’s pivotal role in extending the benefits of TQM across all sustainability dimensions.