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.
Hedging is a linguistic phenomenon used to convey interpersonal messages in spoken interaction. It is a communicative strategy which enables speakers to soften the force of utterances or moderate the assertive force of utterances. It is resulted from different features such as uncertainty, doubt, tentativeness, ambiguity, neutrality, mitigation, and subjectivity. Hedging is used widely in TV debates to make utterances more acceptable to the interlocutors. Hedges are expressions used to communicate the speaker's weak commitment to information conveyed. The utterances in debates are often hedged because in an unhedged form might sound threatening to the addressees, and, therefore, be likely to be rejected.
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The radial wave functions of the generalise dWoods–Saxon (GWS) potential within the two-body model of (Core + n) have been used to study the ground-state density distributions of protons, neutrons and matter and the associated root mean square (rms) radii of neutron-rich 14B, 22N, 23O and 24F halo nuclei. The calculated results show that the radial wave functions of the generalised Woods–Saxon potential within the two-body model succeed in reproducing neutron halo in these exotic nuclei. Elastic electron scattering form factors for these nuclei are studied by combining the charge density distributions with the plane-wave Born approximation (PWBA).
The main objective of the audit process is to enable the auditor to express his neutral technical opinion as to whether the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the financial reporting framework and fairly express the financial position, the result of the activity and the cash flows. A wrong opinion works to burden the beneficiary parties with great damages, and then the presence of any error or bias from the auditor when applying the rules of professional ethics (such as violating professional confidentiality and conflict of interest and moving away from impartiality and objectivity) negatively affects the performance of his
... Show MoreIn this research the hard chromium electroplating process, which is one of the common methods of overlay coating was used, by using chromium acid as source of chromium and sulphuric acid as catalyst since the ratio between chromic acid and sulphuric acid is (100 : 1) consequently. Plating process was made by applying current of density (40 Amp / dm2) and the range of solution temperature was (50 – 55oC) with different time periods (1-5 hr). A low carbon steel type (Ck15) was used as substrate for hard chromium electroplating. Solid carburization was carried out for hard chromium plating specimen at temperature (925oC) with time duration (2 hr) to be followed with quenching and tempering
... Show MoreMycobacterium tuberculosis is the cause of the major world health issue, tuberculosis (TB). The cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) has been implicated in protection against TB in the early stages of the disease. TNF-α is an effective cytokine in the killing of intracellular M. tuberculosis. This study inducted to investigate whether there is any relationship between levels of TNF-α in sera of TB patients and their recovery, and is there any difference in the level of this cytokine in sera of female and male TB patients. This study included 29 patients with pulmonary TB (18 female and 11 male), their ages ranging from 37 to 59 years. All of them received first line TB therapy. They were consulted at Pasture Center during Septem
... Show MoreThe current, research, aims, to, verify, the relationship between talent development practices and organizational performance through a mediating role of creative organizational climate at the Institution of Industrial Development and Research- the Iraqi Industry Ministry. The descriptive and analytic approach was adopted as a research design. The research sample was represented by a number of managers and employees who work at the middle management level. The researchers used the questionnaire as the main method for collecting data to achieve the main research objective. It was distributed 162 questionnaires, of which 146 received; and then all of those were used on the final statistical analysis. The sample response-rate rate w
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The enrollment of students in the university represents a new stage in their life that differ from the previous educational stages that student has previously established. It should be noted that students with special needs at the University of Baghdad are not large numbers. It appears that these students have an excel role in their colleges most often, That is, the handicap was not a barrier to their scientific progress, but rather an incentive for them to excel. The most important conclusion reached by the researcher is that the University of Baghdad had no role in caring for people with special needs and caring for them financially, socially, psychologically, healthily and economically, they need to pay attention to them and take care
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