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.
This growing interest of the international scientific specialized commissions is due to the role that the audit committee can play, as one of companies’ governance tools, to increase the accuracy and transparency of the financial information disclosed by the companies, through its oversight role on the process of preparing financial reports, its supervision on the internal audit function within the companies, and supporting its independency, as well as coordinating the efforts between the internal control unites and the external auditor represented by the (Board of Supreme Audit) to clear the observations and irregularities in order to reduce the fraud cases.
This research was built on an applied sample of audit committee works
... Show MorePolymeric hollow fiber membrane is produced by a physical process called wet or dry/wet phase inversion; a technique includes many steps and depends on different factors (starting from selecting materials, end with post-treatment of hollow fiber membrane locally manufactured). This review highlights the most significant factors that affect and control the characterization and structure of ultrafiltration hollow fiber membranes used in different applications. Three different types of polymers (polysulfone PSF, polyethersulfone PES or polyvinyl chloride PVC) were considered to study morphology change and structure of hollow fiber membranes in this review. These hollow fiber membranes were manufactured with different proce
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Abstract
This paper concerned with study the effect of a graphite micro powder mixed in the kerosene dielectric fluid during powder mixing electric discharge machining (PMEDM) of high carbon high chromium AISI D2 steel. The type of electrode (copper and graphite), the pulse current and the pulse-on time and mixing powder in kerosene dielectric fluid are taken as the process main input parameters. The material removal rate MRR, the tool wear ratio TWR and the work piece surface roughness (SR) are taken as output parameters to measure the process performance. The experiments are planned using response surface methodology (RSM) design procedure. Empirical models are developed for MRR, TWR and SR, using the analysis
... Show MoreThis research aims to numerous risks to the portfolio of the insurance company that arise from practicing the activity in general, and the risks arising from insurance contracts in particular, and what is the role of the company in the disclosure to help users (such as owners) to understand and concentration of risks in the financial reporting and identifying movable risks size to reinsurers that may affect the solvency of the portfolio and makes them at a given moment required to fulfill the obligations towards policyholders outweigh the financial capacity, which leads to stumble or bankruptcy.
So I sought this research is to identify the extent of the obligation to disclose the accounting for this risk and the extent of their i
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AbstractBackgroundLeishmaniasis is endemic in Iraq, where both cutaneous and visceral forms of the disease are reported.ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and to identify associations of CL with age, sex, season, and provinces depending on some demographic and climatic aspects.MethodsThis study is retrospective and includes reported cases of infections using the available surveillance database taken from the Iraqi Ministry of Health for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 for all provinces of Iraq.ResultsMen and boys were found to be at higher risk for CL compared with women and girls. The majority of cases were recorded among those in age groups 5–14 and 15–45 years old. Most cases were recorded from lowla
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According to the current situation of peroxidase (POD), the relevant studies on this enzyme indicated its importance as a tool in clinical biochemistry and different industrial fields. Most of these studies used the fruits and vegetables as source of this enzyme. So that in order to couple the growing requirements for POD with the recent demands for reduc-ing disposal volume by recycling the plant waste, the aim of the present study was to extract POD through management of municipal bio-waste of Iraqi maize species. A simple, green and economical method was used to extract this enzyme. Our results revealed that maize cobs are rich sources of POD, where the activity of this enzyme was found to be 7035.54 U/g of cobs. In pilot experiments thi
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One of the concerns of adopting an e-voting systems in the pooling place of any critical elections is the possibility of compromising the voting machine by a malicious piece of code, which could change the votes cast systematically. To address this issue, different techniques have been proposed such as the use of vote verification techniques and the anonymous ballot techniques, e.g., Code Voting. Verifiability may help to detect such attack, while the Code Voting assists to reduce the possibility of attack occurrence. In this paper, a new code voting technique is proposed, implemented and tested, with the aid of an open source voting. The anonymous ballot improved accordingly the paper audit trail used in this machine. The developed system,
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