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.
Traction force and power requirement when performing primary tillage occupy the minds of almost farmers, this field research had aim to determine and calculate the pulling force of the most commonly used moldboard and chisel plows, the research conducted in silt clay loam for chisel and moldboard plows as the main factor, two depths of tillage 18 and 25 cm as a second factor and three speeds of tractor 2.55, 4.30 and 6.15 km.h-1 as a third factor. Moldboard plow recorded least traction force 7.550 kN, drawbar power 11.583 hp, power losses due to slippage 1.088 hp, power on the rear axle of the tractor 15.770 hp and brake horse power 17.495 hp. Chisel plow recorded best traction efficiency 76.217 % and total traction efficiency 68.659 %. Dep
... Show MoreThe research tackles the potential challenged faced the translator when dealing with the literal translation of nowadays political terms in media. Despite the universal complexity of translating political jargon, adopting literal translation introduces an added layer of intricacy. The primary aim of literal translation is to maintain faithfulness to the original text, irrespective of whether it is in English or Arabic. However, this method presents several challenges within the linguistic and cultural dimensions. Drawing upon scholarly sources, this article expounds upon the multifaceted issues that emerge from the verbatim translation of political terms from English into Arabic. These problems include political culture, language differenc
... Show MoreBackground: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most prevalent non-cutaneous malignancy and the second-leading cause of cancer-relatedmortality among males. Cancer is just one of the several disorders that may be linked to variations in trace element concentrations.Objective: To evaluate serum arrestin β-2 as a prostate cancer tumor marker and its association with trace elements.Methods: This case- control study was carried out at the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad and at the Urology department, Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital for Surgical Specialities during the period from March 2022 to May 2023. In this case-control study 120 males were enrolled: Sixty men with newly diagnosed primary prostate cancer (P
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Mental systems in ontological discourse turned into deliberative systems, derived from the non-coordinated thought that motivated ontological discourse, as an incomplete thought, after it became close to reason; Between creation and prevention, between reasoning and creation, between submission and ambition, the result of an interconnected entity that slays one another from one another, and intersects with one another, to produce a special pattern each time, completely different from its predecessor or to provide a path for the coordination of others, which is outside the linguistic event, or part From it, signs and marks, produced to a large extent M., and united the signs; to return again in a circular and rotational movement to produc
... Show MoreAim: To find any association between specific ABO blood groups and FUT2 secretory status and COVID-19 in a sample of Iraqi dentists. Materials and Methods: For each participant, a questionnaire including demography, COVID-19 status, blood grouping, and RH factor, with chemo-sensitive symptoms was recorded. The saliva samples were collected and DNA was extracted from leukocytes. Sequencing of molecular detection of the FUT2 gene by real-time PCR and the data was done, whilst drawing the phylogenetic tree. Results: Out of 133, most of the dentists were female 61%, most were just under 35 years of age. The most participants in this study were predominantly with blood group O (40%), followed by B, A, and AB, with (90%) of them were RH+.
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The research discussed the role of interrelationships between the product attributes and the individual identity of the brand and the user, starting from reviewing the identity concepts in the general design propositions and the identity from the industrial design perspective, and highlighting the role of the attributes in identifying the individual identity of the product, which would enable the user to adopt them to be representative of his identity, starting from identifying the importance of the identity being characterized by three major elements: innovating products in the user's viewpoint, viewing the user's environment, the methodology of the design language, and identifying the identity attributes in the industrial product start
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Optimizing system performance in dynamic and heterogeneous environments and the efficient management of computational tasks are crucial. This paper therefore looks at task scheduling and resource allocation algorithms in some depth. The work evaluates five algorithms: Genetic Algorithms (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Firefly Algorithm (FA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) across various workloads achieved by varying the task-to-node ratio. The paper identifies Finish Time and Deadline as two key performance metrics for gauging the efficacy of an algorithm, and a comprehensive investigation of the behaviors of these algorithms across different workloads was carried out. Results from the experiment
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