Sustainability over competition: the rise of sustainability in quality management

Abstract

Abstract Purpose The field of management has been witnessing a change from the ‘business for business’ approach to the ‘business for all’ approach for quite some time now. Even though every firm still seek their own interess while doing business, they are now to do so by caring or at least pretending to care about the needs of other individuals, firms, and society in general. This paper addresses the issue of how sustainable policies have overtaken business within the past three decades and how they have also become relevant in the field of quality management. Design/methodology/approach Accordingly, the article presents a brief history of how sustainability has found its way into an iron-clad system of competitive endeavour and highlights the requirements of the fashion in which it can be implemented in quality management. Findings Our theoretical analysis reveals that the way to do this is to address sustainability as a means of meeting some of the most cherished TQM values, namely, customer/stakeholder satisfaction, employee motivation, adaptation to the environment and volatility, and reducing costs/increasing value. Originality/value The current article contributes to literature that is focused on addressing sustainability, sustainable management and SDGs in quality management. By showing how essential sustainability is in TQM, the current study helps bridge two key elements in management literature.