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.
Codes of red, green, and blue data (RGB) extracted from a lab-fabricated colorimeter device were used to build a proposed classifier with the objective of classifying colors of objects based on defined categories of fundamental colors. Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors namely red, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue, brown, grey, white, and black, were employed in machine learning (ML) by applying an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm using Python. The classifier, which was based on the ANN algorithm, required a definition of the mentioned eleven colors in the form of RGB codes in order to acquire the capability of classification. The software's capacity to forecast the color of the code that belongs to an object under de
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Several stress-strain models were used to predict the strengths of steel fiber reinforced concrete, which are distinctive of the material. However, insufficient research has been done on the influence of hybrid fiber combinations (comprising two or more distinct fibers) on the characteristics of concrete. For this reason, the researchers conducted an experimental program to determine the stress-strain relationship of 30 concrete samples reinforced with two distinct fibers (a hybrid of polyvinyl alcohol and steel fibers), with compressive strengths ranging from 40 to 120 MPa. A total of 80% of the experimental results were used to develop a new empirical stress-strain model, which was accomplished through the application of the parti
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Codes of red, green, and blue data (RGB) extracted from a lab-fabricated colorimeter device were used to build a proposed classifier with the objective of classifying colors of objects based on defined categories of fundamental colors. Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors namely red, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue, brown, grey, white, and black, were employed in machine learning (ML) by applying an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm using Python. The classifier, which was based on the ANN algorithm, required a definition of the mentioned eleven colors in the form of RGB codes in order to acquire the capability of classification. The software's capacity to forecast the color of the code that belongs to an ob
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Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometers (PCFIs) are widely used for sensing applications. This work presents the fabrication and study the characterization of a relative humidity sensor based on a polymer-infiltrated photonic crystal fiber that operates in a Mach- Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) reflection mode. The fabrication of the sensor only involves splicing and cleaving Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) with Single Mode Fiber (SMF). A stub of (LMA-10) PCF spliced to SMF (Corning-28). In the splice regions. The PCFI sensor operation based on the adsorption and desorption of water vapour at the silica-air interface within the PCF. The sensor shows a high sensitivity to RH variations from (27% RH - 95% RH), with a change in its reflected powe
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Grass trimming operation is widely done in Malaysia for the purpose of maintaining highways. Large number of operators engaged in this work encounters high level of noise generated by back pack type grass trimmer used for this purpose. High level of noise exposure gives different kinds of ill effect on human operators. Exact nature of deteriorated work performance is not known. For predicting the work efficiency deterioration, fuzzy tool has been used in present research. It has been established that a fuzzy computing system will help in identification and analysis of fuzzy models fuzzy system offers a convenient way of representing the relationships between the inputs and outputs of a system in the form of IF-THEN rules. The paper presents
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The theory of the epic theater has received wide attention by filmmakers around the world because of its great impact on the artistic work of the theater and its relationship with societies, and among these directors the Iraqi directors have been influenced by the epic theater and its applications in the show.
In order to find out the effectiveness of these influences on the Iraqi director, I found the need to do this study, which was divided into an introduction and a theoretical framework that included two topics. The first topic (Philosophical References and the Intellectual Foundations of the Epic Theater Theory) deals with the philosophical foundations that crystallized the epic theory of Burch and the mechanism of working
Geography of industry has been considered a branch of important economic geographical branches. This importance has been regarded as a reflection on the industrial sector contribution in economies of any state since they contribute into the total national product ; it also assimilates a huge number of labor hands . The industry of grains grinding has been considered as one of the main food industries having a main role in satisfying the need of the population from the foods. The industry is continued to use the food as daily meal . Here, it should predict the population in Baghdad and for every district until the end of 2025 and knowing either these grains grinders are able to meet and satisfy the needs of populations of flours, making s
... Show MoreThis research aims at making a comparative survey between the dry season in (2017-2018) and the wet season (2018-2019) in Iraq concerning the variation of rainfall and pressure systems responsible for such a difference. In this paper, seven climatological stations have been selected: Mosul, Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Baghdad, Rutba, Diwaniyah and Basra. Results have shown that the first category of rainfall of the two seasons has recorded a higher number of rainy days in comparison with the second and third categories with a total of 274 day in a dry season and 403 day of a wet season. Further, the total amount of the annual continuous rain is higher than the total of thunderstorms in a dry season as well as in the
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Experimental study has been conducted for laminar natural convection heat transfer of air flow through a rectangular enclosure fitted with vertical partition. The partition was oriented parallel to the two vertical isothermal walls with different temperatures, while all the other surfaces of the enclosure were insulated. In this study a test rig has been designed and constructed to allow studying the effect of Rayleigh number, aperture height ratio, partition thickness, the position of aperture according to the side walls and according to the height, the position of the partition according to the hot wall, and partition inclination. The experiments were carried out with air as the working fluid for Rayleigh number range (5*107 – 1.3*10
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