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 research dealt with the subject of measuring the competitive performance of the National Insurance Company and some of its branches (Basra, Ninwa, Kirkuk and Babil), Depending on the Revenue Growth Index at the activity level, and the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index RCAIAt the branch level,To measure the competitiveness of the company And some branches, As the problem of research in the lack of adoption by some companies in the insurance service sector on scientific indicators to measure their competitive performance, The aims of the research is to measure the competitiveness of the National Insurance Company, as well as the competitiveness of its branches according to the scientific method, One of the main Conclusions of the re
... Show MoreIn the present article, we implement the new iterative method proposed by Daftardar-Gejji and Jafari (NIM) [V. Daftardar-Gejji, H. Jafari, An iterative method for solving nonlinear functional equations, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 316 (2006) 753-763] to solve two problems; the first one is the problem of spread of a non-fatal disease in a population which is assumed to have constant size over the period of the epidemic, and the other one is the problem of the prey and predator. The results demonstrate that the method has many merits such as being derivative-free, overcome the difficulty arising in calculating Adomian polynomials to handle the nonlinear terms in Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM), does not require to calculate Lagrange multiplier a
... Show MoreIn this research the change in the distance of the two stars in two binary star systems (13.6+8)M8and (13+10)M8 was studied, through the calculations the value (rate of mass transfer) of the two phases of dynamical stages of mass which are mass loss and mass transfer has been extracted in its own way ,by extracting the value of the value of (the distance variation between the two stars) has been found only in the mass transfer stage by using mathematical model ,in mass loss stage and were calculated from the change and the difference between the values of each at different times of binary star system evolution ,it was found that the maximum values of and are in ma
... Show MoreThe present work aims to investigate approaches, measures and detection of indoor radon level in buildings of the department of physics in college of science of Baghdad University. CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors were used to measure the radon concentrations inside the rooms, including five laboratories and five workplace rooms in ground and first storey of the department. The average radon concentration at first storey was found to be 43.1±13.2 Bq/m3 and 40.1±13.4 Bq/m3 at the ground storey. The highest level of radon concentration at the first storey in the radioactive sources store was 87.5±29 Bq/m3 while at the ground storey in room(2) was 70.2±24 Bq/m3 which is due to the existence radioactive sources in some selected
... Show MoreIncreased interest in the subject of the image because of its great and growing link to the life of the individual and society and its impact on the overall political, economic and cultural conditions. This interest is no longer confined to the images of people or institutions, but has become beyond that to the images of countries and peoples and the impact on bilateral relations between them,
However, we find that the image of the Iraqi abroad remained vague and has not been scientifically recognized and the most that we can generalize are the features of the image of Arabs and Muslims abroad; and assume that the image of the Iraqi applies to them as the Iraqi is in the end an Arab or Muslim.
Based on this, the research
... Show MoreThis study aimed for isolation and identification of Candida glabrata and identifying some virulence factors. The distribution of patients with candidemia thrush showed that the age group 50-65 years old recorded the highest incidence of candidiasis in female and male with leukemia by 50% and 37.9 % respectively compared to the lowest incidence of candidiasis in the age group under 17 years old in female and male 8.8% and 13.5%, respectively. While the age group between 5-8 years was high, reaching 18 cases of oral candidiasis and 42% of children with leukemia compared with the age group, which was the least, that reached 9 cases, 21%. The highest incidence of C. glabrata was 59 isolates of females and males with leukemia, while C. kefyer w
... Show MoreA theoretical model is developed to determine time evolution of temperature at the surface of an opaque target placed in air for cases characterized by the formation of laser supported absorption waves (LSAW) plasmas. The model takes into account both plasma dynamics and time variation of incident laser pulse (i.e. pulse shape or profile).Shock tube relations were employed in formulating plasma dynamics over target surface. Gaussian function was chosen in formulating the pulse profile in the present modeling
Twelve species from Brassicaceae family were studied using two different molecular techniques: RAPD and ISSR; both of these techniques were used to detect some molecular markers associated with the genotype identification. RAPD results, from using five random primers, revealed 241 amplified fragments, 62 of them were polymorphic (26%).
ISSR results showed that out of seven primers, three (ISSR3, UBC807, UBC811) could not amplify the genomic DNA; other primers revealed 183 amplified fragments, 36 of them were polymorphic (20%). The similarity evidence and dendrogram for the genetic distances of the incorporation between the two techniques showed that the highest similarity was 0.897 between the va
... Show MoreSilver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are of potential interest because of their effective antibacterial and antiviral activities. Capping agents are used for exhibiting a better antibacterial activity than uncapped Ag NPs. There are very few reports that have shown the usage of AgNPs for in-vivo antibacterial therapy. Citrate-capped silver nanoparticles were synthesized chemically by citrate reduction method; the size of Cit-AgNPs was determined by an atomic force microscope (AFM) and was between 15-90 nm. Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) isolates were the only sensitive species to Cit-AgNPs. MICs and MBC of Cit-AgNPs were determined by using A. baumannii. The results showed an additive effect of Cit-AgNPs. Four mice groups were infected with
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