Determinants of total quality management in the Saudi public hospital : the moderating impact of knowledge management

Public hospitals in Saudi Arabia were undergoing tremendous pressure from the government and also public to improve their level of quality services. Hence, this study is undertaken as an effort to examine the factors that influence total quality management (TQM) practices in Saudi Arabia public hospitals. It has also aimed at examining the moderating effect of knowledge management on the relationship between the independent variables of information technology, employee capacity, employee commitment, and the dependent variable of total quality management practices. This study was motivated by the inconsistency of findings reported in the literature regarding the above mentioned relationship. The inconsistencies have led to the emergence of a new research stream that recommends the investigation of moderating variables that could explain the relationships. Therefore, in the present study, different theories were employed including the contingency theory and the resource-based view to providing an insight into the relationships. The study made use of a survey questionnaire randomly distributed to 259 public hospitals in the Saudi Arabia, of which 154 were found suitable for analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the descriptive part of the analysis while Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess the outer measurement model and the relationships between the variables. The findings of the study revealed that employees’ capacity and information technology were significantly related to TQM practices. The findings also revealed that knowledge management moderated the relationship between employee commitment and TQM while it did not moderate the relationship between employee capacity and information technology and TQM. The study has managerial, policy and theoretical implications along with the recommendations for future research