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 simple and available technique of colorimetry and indirect X-ray fluorescence determination of tetracycline hydrochloride (in the form of colored complex with iron(III) ions) and cyanocobalamine (in the form of the colored thiocyanate complex with cobalt(II) ions) is offered. The analytes were separated from the accompanying components by sorption to polyurethane foam based on ethers. The conditions of sorption separation and measurement of analytical signal of these substances are optimized. The obtained results of tetracycline drugs and injection solution B12 vitamin are in satisfactory agreement with data declared by the manufacturer.
The angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) I\D gene polymorphism influences the blood ACE enzyme activity. Renoprotective effect of ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) varies among patients due to genetic variation, particularly in Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System genes. This study investigates the genetic variations of ACE I\D and AGT1RA1166C gene polymorphisms in the antiproteinuric effect of ACEI therapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. This is a cross-sectional study that included 76 T2DM patients who are ACEI users, divided into two groups: T2DM without diabetic kidney disease (DKD) included 31 patients, and T2DM with DKD included 45 patients. Urine samples were taken for measurement of urine albumin and creatinine, then calcul
... Show More
Background: The incorporation of rubber has not been entirely successful because it can have detrimental effects on the transverse Strength and hence the rigidity of the denture base. Materials and methods: Zirconium oxide nanoparticales were coated with a layer of trimethoxysilylpropylmethacrylate (TMSPM) before sonication in monomer (MMA) with the percentages 3% by weight then mixed with powder using conventional procedure.(100) samples were prepared and divided into five groups according to the test performed ,Each group consisted of 20 specimens and these were subdivided into 2 groupsGroup (A): control group (10 specimens of high impact acrylic resin without zirconium oxide) and Group (B):zirconium oxide group(10 specimens of high impac
... Show More
(10)
The study was conducted at the fields of the Dept. of Horticulture and Garden Engineering, College of the Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Jadriyah in the fall season of 2020-2021 aiming to culture the coral lettuce with green and red leaves under the hydroponics system using the modified nutrient solution film NFT and study the effect of aqueous extracts of alfalfa and berseem sprouted seeds on the quantitative and qualitative yield of the lettuce crop. The research was conducted as an experiment of split plots within the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) of three replicates. The seedlings of the green coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, and red coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, symbolized by A and B respectively, were transferred to the c
... Show More
(4)
In this paper, we describe the cases of marriage and divorce in the city of Baghdad on both sides of Rusafa and Karkh, we collected the data in this research from the Supreme Judicial Council and used the cubic spline interpolation method to estimate the function that passing through given points as well as the extrapolation method which was applied for estimating the cases of marriage and divorce for the next year and comparison between Rusafa and Karkh by using the MATLAB program.
The general objective of the research is to better understand changes in land cover and their impact on climatic factors by measuring changes in land cover for the Baghdad city for the period 1999-2021 and evaluating changes in land cover and measuring changes in climatic factors (relative humidity and evaporation). This study from 1999 to 2021 and in two different seasons: the April of the growing season and August the dry season. When using the supervised classification method to determine the differences, the results showed remarkable changes, the study showed the spatial variations in LC from 1999 to 2021 as follows: increase in the vegetation and water bodies during April and decrease this in August while the soil and built up decreas
... Show More
(3)
(1)
the most important purposes and uses of the test results in the educational sector. This is because the quality of tests is related to their ability to predict the learner's behavior in the future, and the accuracy of the educational and administrative decisions that are taken in light of their results. The study aimed accordingly to reveal the predictive ability of the university Grade Point Average (GPA) in the Score of the specialized test for the position of teacher in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman. It further aimed to investigate the differences in the predictive ability according to the specialization and academic year using the descriptive approach. The sample of the study consisted of (349) s/he students enro
... Show More
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)
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women worldwide, and it has the fourth highest mortality rate among cancers in women. The present study aimed to reveal the impact of age factor in cervical abnormalities and cancers incidence in some Iraqi married women. 150 scraping cervical cells samples were collected from the women clinically diagnosed with cervical abnormalities and cancer who were divided into two groups; the first group included the women with abnormal pap smear which revealed 13.33% of women were less than 30 years and followed by 66.66% of women whose age between 30-50 years and 20% of them were more than 50 years old. While the second group iclude the women with normal Pap smear (Healthy women) which revealed tha
... Show More