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.
We presented here a 65years old lady with an unusual presentation of a large epigastric hernia of twenty years duration .The swelling was occupying all the right hypochondrial region .The diagnosis was made on r^E^a-operative identification of the defect in the linea alba which wassutured after removal of the hernial sac and its contents .The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient remained with no complications or recurrence for more than two years follow up.
Data hiding is the process of encoding extra information in an image by making small modification to its pixels. To be practical, the hidden data must be perceptually invisible yet robust to common signal processing operations. This paper introduces a scheme for hiding a signature image that could be as much as 25% of the host image data and hence could be used both in digital watermarking as well as image/data hiding. The proposed algorithm uses orthogonal discrete wavelet transforms with two zero moments and with improved time localization called discrete slantlet transform for both host and signature image. A scaling factor ? in frequency domain control the quality of the watermarked images. Experimental results of signature image
... Show MoreThe extracting of personal sprite from the whole image faced many problems in separating the sprite edge from the unneeded parts, some image software try to automate this process, but usually they couldn't find the edge or have false result. In this paper, the authors have made an enhancement on the use of Canny edge detection to locate the sprite from the whole image by adding some enhancement steps by using MATLAB. Moreover, remove all the non-relevant information from the image by selecting only the sprite and place it in a transparent background. The results of comparing the Canny edge detection with the proposed method shows improvement in the edge detection.
Introduction:
Many business owners suffer major financial problems during periods of financial stagnation, the decline of markets and businesses, or under the impact of financial shocks for certain reasons that result in large debts and the consequent financial and legal obligations. This is the beginning of a long and endless path of suffering and the search for a safe exit. It is even worse for financial institutions to facilitate financial solutions that rely on lending as a solution to their financial problem. Debt and its consequences increase, and the problem deepens and becomes complicated until things become entangled and the escape or declaration of bank
... Show MoreThe websites over time have become one of the important tools for communication between individuals among themselves and between individuals and economic units, and they have emerged as one of the important intangible assets to achieve income, as they have become a competitive tool and a marketing outlet for these units and a main means of communication that it uses to exercise its various major activities and achieve potential economic benefits. Therefore, there was a need to measure and display the value of these sites in the financial statements as intangible assets. Accordingly, the purpose of the research was to determine the costs of the websites owned by the economic unit by way purchase and sites that were created i
... Show MoreThe concept of deficit in public budget becomes a chronic economic phenomenon in most of the world, whether the advanced countries or developing countries. Despite the difference in the visions of the economic schools to accept or reject the deficit in public budget but the opinion that prevailed is the necessity of the state to reduce the public spending which led to a continuous deficits in the public budget which consequently increased the government borrowing ,increase income taxes and wealth, consequently this weakened the in motivation in private investment which contributed to the increase of in factionary stagnation , so that governments have to cover the lack of local funding sources which become difficult to be eq
... Show MoreService companies always working to increase their competitiveness and efficiency of the survival, growth and development in the present and the future, including insurance companies, so as to increase competition, especially after the emergence of the civil companies dramatically after 2003, has become the goal of recent studies carried out by the organizations is the human capital, because its success and excellence and achievement its objectives depends on the human, and this does not mean that the other components are not important, but also rely on the rights which has increased interest in the search for the way in which they can guide the behaviors and values and their own language in line with the organization's strategy an
... Show MoreThe current research aims to find out the effect of strategic sensitivity in enhancing organizational immunity at the leadership levels in the Iraqi Ministry of Education, as the strategic sensitivity variable includes two dimensions (strategic foresight and strategic Insight), and the organizational immunity variable addresses three dimensions (organizational learning, organizational memory and organizational DNA). The main purpose of this research was related to the extent to which the Ministry’s immunity was achieved through the role played by strategic sensitivity. A sample of (349) individuals was selected . The questionnaire was relied upon to collect data, and the number of questionnaires suitable for analysis was (330). Re
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