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.
Video copyright protection is the most generally acknowledged method of preventing data piracy. This paper proposes a blind video copyright protection technique based on the Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Arnold Map. The proposed method chooses only frames with maximum and minimum energy features to host the watermark. It also exploits the advantages of both the fast Walsh Hadamard transform (FWHT) and discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) for watermark embedding. The Arnold map encrypts watermarks before the embedding process and decrypts watermarks after extraction. The results show that the proposed method can achieve a fast embedding time, good transparency, and robustness against various
... Show More
(1)
Objective: Schiff’s and Mannich bases of isatins are an important group of heterocyclic compounds which are of great importance in medicinal chemistry as antimicrobial agents. In the vision of these facts, new bis-Schiff bases and Mannich bases of isatins were synthesized. Methods: Three different bis-Schiff bases (3a-c) have been synthesized by reacting isatin, 5-fluoroisatin and 5-methoxy isatin with thiophene-2- carboxaldehyde using hydrazine hydrate to link between the carbonyl compounds, and then these bis- Schiff bases were condensed with two different secondary amines (piperidine and morpholine) separately, and formaldehyde to form the Mannich bases (4a-c and 5a-f), respectively. Results: The structures of the newly synthesized com
... Show More
(5)
The process of transporting waste from urban areas to sanitary landfill sites requires large amounts of money due to the length and distance. To address this problem, temporary transfer stations were established by the Municipality of Baghdad to reduce the cost of transportation, and for the purpose of preserving the environment in a sustainable manner, standards were set for the establishment of these stations. The two stations of Al-Karrada Municipality and Al-Shula Municipality were chosen as a case study to measure the extent of adopting and applying the standards for establishing substations locally, regionally and internationally, and the most important results were reached Which is that the transforming (regular) stations of the t
... Show MoreThis paper aims to identify the approaches used in assessment the credit applications by Iraqi banks, as well as which approach is most used. It also attempted to link these approaches with reduction of credit default and banks’ efficiency particularly for the Gulf Commercial Bank. The paper found that the Gulf Bank widely relies on the method of Judgment Approach for assessment the credit applications in order to select the best of them with low risk of default. In addition, the paper found that the method of Judgment Approach was very important for the Gulf Bank and it driven in reduction the ratio of credit default as percentage of total credit. However, it is important to say that the adoption of statistical approaches for
... Show More
The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the multiple intelligence and the numerical sense. The chosen population of the study was the 4th secondary stage students. The sample consisted of 400 female and male student. The researcher utilized two test; multiple intelligence test which include three categories of intelligence (logical-mathematical, spatial, and linguistics) consisted of (36) item, and the numerical sense test that consisted of (44) item. The two tests were constructed by the researcher himself. The psychometric properties of the test were also verified. The results showed that there was a correlation between the multiple intelligence and the numerical sense as well as the students’ means scores
... Show MoreThe article analyzes the neologisms that arose in the Iraqi dialect after the 2003 US-British invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, according to the theory I advocate: "The Basic Outline of Reference," a developed theory of Arab legacy and cognitive theory, which came out in 1987 in America, so we have used the terminology of cognitive grammar. In this theory it is stated that the reference is the interaction between four components: perception, imagination, imaginative comprehension and the linguistic sign or symbolization (the neological word in this article), which are closely related, so that none of them can be lacking, because they constitute a holistic whole that belongs to a deeper level. Let us
... Show More
Summary of the jurisprudence research
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the Master of the Messengers, our master Muhammad, and upon his pure family, and his ignorant and ignorant companions, and those who followed them in goodness until the Day of Judgment.
Then:
The many jurisprudential aspects that the Shafi’i imams said are of great importance, because these aspects are nothing but the opinions of venerable jurists who have reached a high degree of knowledge until they have become among the owners of faces. And among them are the Shafi’i jurists, the jurists may differ among themselves, either because there is no text about their imam in a
... Show Moreيعد علم التدريب الرياضي الحديث عملية تربوية علمية مبنية على اسس صحيحة هدفها وصول اللاعبين الى التكامل في الاداء الفني وهذا يتم عن طريق التأثير المنظم والدقيق بواسطة استعمال التمارين البدنية التي تحدث تغيرات خاصة في عمل اعضاء واجهزة جسم الرياضي والتي بدورها تؤدي الى رفع كفاءة الاعضاء والاجهزة لتحقيق الانجازات الرياضية العالية ولقد استعملت الباحثتان اسلوب حديث من اساليب التدريب الرياضي من اجل تطوير تحم
... Show More
(1)
The research aims to know The Effect Of Flexible Grouping Strategy and Three Step Interview strategy on achievement of the history material among student of the first literary class, The Researcher used the experimental design of the two experimental groups and the control group and with post test, researcher group (a) represent the experimental group taught according the Flexible Grouping Strategy , and Division (c) to represent the second experimental group which studied according Three Step Interview strategy and Division (b ) to represent the control group taught in the traditional method, the number of students (99) students of (33) female students in each division. T
... Show More