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.
Objective: Knee osteoarthritis is a common disabling chronic disease globally. Many pharmacological agents have been used efficiently in treatment of knee osteoarthritis. This study aims to evaluate metformin and serratiopeptidase together in treatment and stop of osteoarthritis progression by different mechanisms. Methods: Present study was a randomized clinical trial study conducted in Al-Kindi teaching hospital through the period from 1st January to 30th of May, 2017 on two groups of 80 osteoarthritis patients (group I; treated with metformin 850 mg oral tablets) and (group II; treated with metformin 850 mg oral tablets and serratiopeptidase 20 mg oral tablets). Parameters of two groups were compared with those of 40 normal healt
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SUMMARY. – Absorption, flourescence, quantum yield and lifetime of rhodamine B in chloroform, methanol and dimethyl sulfoxide were measured. A comparison was done of these quantities with those for solid solutions, which are obtained by mixing constant volume proportions of dye at a concentration of 1×10–4M/l with different volume proportions from the concentrated solution of polymer in chloroform and dimethyl sulfoxide. The results showed that the addition of polymer to liquid concentrated solutions (1×10–4M/l) of rhodamine B dye from expecting, which leads to development of active medium for laser dye at high concentration, increase the spectra shift toward high energies, and the luminescence quantum yield but decreasing radiative
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Background: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare congenital condition that results in bone fragility, recurrent fractures, and various extra-skeletal manifestations. Currently, intravenous bisphosphonate is the mainstay of medical treatment in OI. Objective: To identify the effect of current management strategies on Iraqi children diagnosed with OI. Methods: A retrospective study enrolled OI patients who were registered in Central Child Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, from January 2015 to December 2022. We enrolled confirmed OI cases (either clinically and/or radiologically) who received cyclic pamidronate therapy for at least 3 cycles. They neither received other types of bisphosphonates nor underwent surgical intervention. Res
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The present study explores numerically the energy storage and energy regeneration during Melting and Solidification processes in Phase Change Materials (PCM) used in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage (LHTES) systems. Transient two-dimensional (2-D) conduction heat transfer equations with phase change have been solved utilizing the Explicit Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Grid Generation technique. A Fortran computer program was built to solve the problem. The study included four different Paraffin's. The effects of container geometrical shape, which included cylindrical and square sections of the same volume and heat transfer area, the container volume or mass of PCM, variation of mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid (HTF), and temp
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In this paper, we will focus to one of the recent applications of PU-algebras in the coding theory, namely the construction of codes by soft sets PU-valued functions. First, we shall introduce the notion of soft sets PU-valued functions on PU-algebra and investigate some of its related properties.Moreover, the codes generated by a soft sets PU-valued function are constructed and several examples are given. Furthermore, example with graphs of binary block code constructed from a soft sets PU-valued function is constructed.
The present paper examines the genre of death notices in Iraqi newspapers in terms of its schematic and socio-cultural structure. Adopting Swales' [1990] rhetorical approach to genre analysis, the study has examined a corpus of 150 death texts
Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy
has become the standard of care for the
elective management of cholelithiasis. Little
information exists, however, regarding the
appropriateness of this procedure in the setting
of acute symptomatology.
Objective: This study was designed to
evaluate the outcome of laparoscopic
cholecystectomy in acute and severe acute
cholecystitis based on early and late biliary
complications, their incidence and
management, and conversion rates to open
surgery.
Methods: A prospective study done between
April 2007 and November 2010, in the
department of general surgery, medical city
teaching hospital, Baghdad. Includes patients
with acute cholecystitis admitted f
With the advancement of technology ,the study of cross-cultural communication via on line has become an important and researchable topic in linguistic theory and its applications.The aims of this study are two- fold (a) exploring the influence of cultural diversity on on-line interaction between American native speakers (NSs) and Iraqi non-native speakers (NNSs) of English which, together with other factors might potentially lead to what Thomas(1983) calls "pragmatic failure" (PF), a main cause of communication breakdowns and (b) specifying which type of PF occurs more frequently between the two groups along with the reasons behind such failures. To achieve these objectives , a number of online chats conducted between
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