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.
An extensive program of laboratory testing was conducted on ring footing rested on gypseous soil brought from the north of Iraq (Salah El-Deen governorate) with a gypsum content of 59%. There are limited researches available, and even fewer have been done experimentally to understand how to ring footings behave; almost all the previous works only concern the behavior of ring footing under vertical loads, Moreover, relatively few studies have examined the impact of eccentric load and inclined load on such footing. In this study, a series of tests, including dry and wet tests, were carried out using a steel container (600×600×600) mm, metal ring footing (100 mm outer diameter and 40 mm inner diameter) was placed in the m
... Show MoreResearchers used different methods such as image processing and machine learning techniques in addition to medical instruments such as Placido disc, Keratoscopy, Pentacam;to help diagnosing variety of diseases that affect the eye. Our paper aims to detect one of these diseases that affect the cornea, which is Keratoconus. This is done by using image processing techniques and pattern classification methods. Pentacam is the device that is used to detect the cornea’s health; it provides four maps that can distinguish the changes on the surface of the cornea which can be used for Keratoconus detection. In this study, sixteen features were extracted from the four refractive maps along with five readings from the Pentacam software. The
... Show MoreIn order to promote sustainable steel-concrete composite structures, special shear connectors that can facilitate deconstruction are needed. A lockbolt demountable shear connector (LB-DSC), including a grout-filled steel tube embedded in the concrete slab and fastened to a geometrically compatible partial-thread bolt, which is bolted on the steel section's top flange of a composite beam, was proposed. The main drawback of previous similar demountable bolts is the sudden slip of the bolt inside its hole. This bolt has a locked conical seat lug that is secured inside a predrilled compatible counter-sunk hole in the steel section's flange to provide a non-slip bolt-flange connection. Deconstruction is achieved by demounting the tube from the t
... Show MoreThe study of images in the cognitive field receives considerable attention by researchers, whether in the field of media and public relations or in other humanities. Due to the great importance in shaping trends of public opinion, especially trends that individuals and the behaviors of people, institutions or ideas are determined by forming images that they hold in their minds towards these persons or institutions. Modern enterprises have realized, whether they are governmental ministries and official departments or non-governmental organizations as civil society organizations, the importance of studying the dominant image in the minds of the masses and make decisions and draw plans to configure this image as these institutions wishes.&n
... Show MoreThe theater benefited from the concept of (hypertext) to create different virtual worlds. The four chapters of the research included the first (methodological framework), the second (theoretical framework) came in two sections (hypertext, its concepts and applications) and (hypertextual space in theatrical performance), and the investigations resulted in indicators, including:
1- Hypertext is interacting interactively, but it is organized by correlation as a basic feature that defines it with different manifestations.
2- The hypertext combines the word with other formative elements that reduce a set of tagged information (word, image, light, shadow, color, number).
In the third chapter (research procedures) (Lord play) was
دور اللوبي الصهيوني في صنع السياسة الأمريكية
The Semitic Languages have her its Articulatory That what we attend to discuss In this Research to Represent the Relation Between them and the Light Of Semitics a Comparative Studies where ever It's Exists The Semitic languages by comparing the words whish most Semitic languages share with each other. We call such Words the Semitic denominator. We have adopted a comparative framework in our Research, which is based on comparing an Arabic word with its Semitic counterpart in Order to identify the forms that control grammatical change in both language
... Show MoreDrama is one of the means of transmitting human experiences, as it presents within it the life ideas and visions of the spectator, who is subject to their influence on him, robbed of the will in front of its charm and various display arts, which invade him with its dimensions and affect his references, and this art form is based on stories revolving around personalities involved in events that have grown As a result of the struggle of two conflicting opponents, or two opposing forces or emotions generated as a result of a voluntary conflict, as this dramatic conflict represents the most important elements of those events, as it is embodied in an inevitable scene that emerges from other scenes, and this scene is sometimes subject to the
... Show MoreThe Sound of the letter (ق) in the Contemporary Arabic Dialects