Globalisation and rapid environmental change have created many challenges for public and private organisations across Iraq as a developing country, particularly in the higher education sector. This includes, for example, decreases in government funding; increased demand for higher education; a need for economic transformation, and related competitiveness of organizations. Such challenges require exceptional leaders and strategic planning in order to take action to improve. In Iraq, the higher education sector is still one of the main foundations in progressing the knowledge economy. Studies into leadership style, strategic planning processes, and the importance of leadership and organisational culture to an organisation’s success have been used to assist both public and private Iraqi colleges in responding to the challenges they face. Although, some studies have examined the interaction between leadership and strategic planning, and leadership and organisational success, there has been no empirical study that has investigated how these three variables interact together. Thus, this study aimed, firstly, to identify the current leadership styles and strategic planning processes in the colleges and the challenges they faced, and to gain an understanding from the perspective of the senior leaders themselves as to how they might best respond to the current situation. Secondly, based on the participants’ experiences, knowledge and perceptions, the study aimed to identify implications for both practice and policy to help improve the colleges’ outcomes. The study involved a mixed-methods approach and was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, the researcher gathered quantitative data by administering a survey package to 129 leaders (deans, associate deans, and heads of departments) across both public and private colleges in the capital city of Baghdad. During the second stage, the researcher gathered qualitative data to more deeply explore the survey results by conducting individual interviews with a sub-sample of 21 leaders from both college types (ten public and 11 private). In the data analyses stages, both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied to compiling tables and charts, and to test hypotheses, by employing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Microsoft Excel, and NVivo. The results of study showed that both transformational and transactional leadership styles played a varied and vital role in the colleges’ strategic planning processes, and in turn their success. The fact that private colleges were ‘for profit’ and public colleges were ‘not for profit’, as well as their contrasting funding models, highlighted key differences between the two college types’ leadership and general modus operandi. While it was found that both transformative leadership and transactional leadership styles were necessary to address the challenges colleges faced in the Iraqi educational context, the impetus for change extended far beyond the need for professional development of leaders. The embracing of information communication technologies, and reliable Internet was seen as necessary in all aspects of the colleges’ work and provision for teaching and learning, and students’ success. This applied to both college types along with the need for closer adherence to government regulations and more focused government coordination of colleges’ administrative functions. Furthermore, implications for making successful improvements to practice also identified the need to manage the challenge of sociocultural influences on the appointments and promotions of leaders. It was concluded that a greater emphasis on teamwork and provision of incentives for staff, along with a ‘boost’ to pedagogy and practice, which could be provided through the adoption of information communication technologies and appropriate professional development strategies, would enhance the colleges’ ranks and the status of their qualifications. Also, theoretically, the study offers a value-add to leadership, strategic planning process, and organisational success literature in the form of a conceptual model that links these variables in the context of Iraqi higher education sector.
The current research aims at testing the relationship between organizational immunity and preventing administrative and financial corruption (AFC) in Iraq. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program (R& SPSS) was used to analyse the associated questionnaire data. The research problem has examined how to activate the functions of the organizational immune system to enable it to face organizational risks, attempt to prevent administrative and financial corruption, and access the mechanisms by which to develop organizational immunity. A sample of 161 individuals was taken who worked in the Directorate General of Education, Karbala. Also, it was concluded to a lack of memory function for organizational immunity. In a
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This study seeks to shed light on the aspects of visual pollution and its impact on the aesthetics of the town of Al-Eizariya known to suffer from the phenomenon. In order to identify the real causes of the problem which develops in various forms and patterns, threatening not only the aesthetic appearance of the towns, but also causes the emergence of new problems and phenomena that will have negative repercussions on the population. The researcher uses the analytical descriptive method to analyze the phenomenon of visual pollution in terms of reality, development, manifestations and spread and uses photos which document the visual pollution and its impact on the aesthetics of the known. The study concluded the existence of a strong rela
... Show Morehe planning process is generally aimed at developing the city and making it meet the needs of different citizens. The green areas constitute one of the basic needs of the city and with the rapid and unusual growth in the size of cities, especially in the third world countries, which is often embodied in capitals. Which was achieved as a result of many reasons, including political, economic and social and even enshrined through some of the decisions that were issued and the city of Baghdad, but a clear example of these cities. The city and the environment are inseparable terms. The city is where people spend their lives and their daily experiences, and the environment is the center in w
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The Purpose of this research is a comparison between two types of multivariate GARCH models BEKK and DVECH to forecast using financial time series which are the series of daily Iraqi dinar exchange rate with dollar, the global daily of Oil price with dollar and the global daily of gold price with dollar for the period from 01/01/2014 till 01/01/2016.The estimation, testing and forecasting process has been computed through the program RATS. Three time series have been transferred to the three asset returns to get the Stationarity, some tests were conducted including Ljung- Box, Multivariate Q and Multivariate ARCH to Returns Series and Residuals Series for both models with comparison between the estimation and for
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The developments and transformations taking place in the era and the growth of knowledge economies and communication technology led this development to compel higher education institutions in Iraq to reconsider their objectives to keep pace with development. And one of the most important tools of development was the application of e-learning standards and its long-term impact on the performance of the educational institution. Performance auditing plays an important role in verifying the extent to which these institutions have implemented their activities and programs that auditing performance by adopting e-learning standards helps the institutions’ management by providing appropriate information on the extent to which they achieve thei
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to identify environmental awareness under the Corona pandemic among students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at the University of Kufa. and comparison of environmental awareness under the Corona pandemic between students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at the University of Kufa. The two researchers used the descriptive approach in the style of the survey and comparisons to identify the research community in the students of the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at the University of Kufa for the academic year 2020-2021, who numbered (210) students, then a sample of (80) students was chosen randomly, with a percentage of (38.09%) from the research co
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An annotated list based both on personal collections and on literature records, is presented for twenty species and subspecies of Chrysomelinae from Iraq. Eight of which are newly recorded, bringing the total number of species and subspecies for Iraq to 25. Localities and host data are given for most species.