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.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systematic autoimmune disorder with chronic inflammation changes of unknown etiology. Various synovial inflammatory and proliferative alterations may contribute to the cartilaginous tissues and invasive bony tissues, leading to destructive joints and malformed bones. This disease is mostly due to infective microorganisms or genetic susceptibility causing immune system disturbances through triggering both T-cells and B-cells. Furthermore, different immune cells may secret cytokines, which are responsible for some RA pathogenesis activity. From ninety individuals, serum sample was collected; thirty of them were normal and sixty cases were patients with RA attended a privet medical clin
... Show MoreThis research presents the concepts of compatibility and edge spaces in
This study deals with the concepts of Colonialism and Civilization in Aimé Cesaire’s A Tempest. The concern of this study is to discuss how postcolonial writers are continually re-writing the Western canonical works as a reaction to the European cultural hegemony. The Western representations of the black are products of specific moments and developments in history and culture. A Tempest reflects a certain historical moment in the decolonization process.
A Tempest is analysed to reveal the counter literary strategy used by Aimé Cesaire, and to disclose the reasons why re-writing and writing back are considered as vital and inescapable tasks. Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which deals with the
... Show MoreThere is a real problem when adding micro elements to the soil as a result of fixation, sedimentation, washing or toxicity, and thus economic loss. The plant needs micro elements in very small quantities that do not burn the leaves or cause poisoning to plants, including iron, zinc and boron, as they are essential elements for growth and completing the plant's life cycle, and increase the plant's resistance to diseases and insects, activate enzymes, and form the chlorophyll molecule, in addition to their role in oxidation and reduction processes and vital processes. The use of fertilizers with their modern technology has made the process of activating seeds or foliar nutrition a matter of interest to researchers as a complementary process t
... Show MoreThe current research aims to diagnose the extent of interest in knowledge sharing and its role in achieving organizational excellence at the level of the Iraqi environment Primary data through descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, percentages, frequencies) and hypothesis testing using appropriate statistical methods for inferential statistical analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient, simple linear regression, multiple regression, path analysis) and checking the quality of the data from During (normal distribution, confirmatory factor analysis, structural modeling method, and exploratory factor analysis), after collecting data from (358) observations from the company’s leaders, as
... Show MoreThe present study examines the main points of differences in the subject of greetings between the English language and the Arabic language. From the review of the related literature on greetings in both languages, it is found that Arabic greeting formulas are more elaborate than the English greetings, because of the differences in the social customs and the Arabic traditions and the Arabic culture. It is also found that Arabic greetings carry a religious meaning basing on the Islamic principle of “the same or more so”, which might lead to untranslatable loopholes when rendered in English.
Aromaticity reversals between the electronic ground (S0) and low-lying singlet (S1, S2) and triplet (T1, T2, T3) states of naphthalene and anthracene are investigated by calculating the respective off-nucleus isotropic magnetic shielding distributions using complete-active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) wavefunctions involving gauge-including atomic orbitals (GIAOs). The shielding distributions around the aromatic S0, antiaromatic S1 (1Lb), and aromatic S2 (1La) states in naphthalene are found to resemble the outcomes of fusing together the respective S0, S1, and S2 shielding distributions of two benzene rings. In anthracene, 1La is lower in energy than 1Lb, and as a result, the S1 state becomes aromatic, and the S2 state becomes anti
... Show MoreObjective: The aim of this study to detect the correlation between trace elements such as zinc, copper and
spermatogenesis, sperm viability and motility.
Methodology: Serum and semen samples were collected from one hundred twenty patients with age ranged (20-
50 years) attending the high institute for Embryo Research and Infertility Treatment/ Baghdad University, in
addition to thirty fertile males their age comparable to that of patients. The period of this study was from June
2004 until the end of October 2004.
Results: The result of routine seminal fluid analysis of all infertile males was divided according to WHO, (1999) limit
into four groups: Asthenospermia(A), Asthenoteratospermia(AT), Oligoasthenoteratospermi
Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyze the patterns of facial fractures in children and to compare them between preschool- and school-aged children. Materials and methods: This retrospective observational study included 57 children with facial fractures. The variables analyzed were the age of the patients—divided into a preschool-aged group (0–5 years) and a school-aged group (6–12 years)—gender, cause of trauma, the facial bones involved, the pattern of fracture, the modality of treatment used, the time between injury and treatment, and the postoperative complications. Results: The incidence of facial fractures in children ≤12 years was 30.2%. The patients consisted of 40 (70.2%) males and 17 (29.8%) females, and most pati
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