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.
The corrosion inhibition of aluminum alloy 5083 by an environment friendly compound called (8- Hydroxyquinoline) in
acidic and alkaline solutions of pH (2 and 12) respectively were studied using weight loss and polarization techniques.
Also to examine the main and combined effects of the inhibitor concentration, pH, and contact time using factorial
experimental design. Results show that corrosion rate decreased with increasing both inhibitor concentration and
contact time and increased with increasing pH value. The polarization curves show that 8-hydroxyquinoline is a
cathodic inhibitor
The acidity of spent lubricant was treated using sodium hydroxide solution. The effect of three variables on the treatment have been studied . These are mixing time rangingfrom 5-35 minutes, NaOH to lubricant weight ratio ranging from 0.25-1.25 and weight percentage of NaOH ranging from 2-6 % .
The experimental design of Box-Wilson method is adopted to find a useful relationship between the three controllable variables and the lowering in the acidity of the spent lubricant. Then the effective variables and interactions are identified using the statistical analysis(F-test) of three variable fractional design. The mathematical model is well represented by a second order polynomial.
By
... Show More
: translating acronyms of media and international (& world) organizations helps the researcher to draw the following conclusions:1- Acronyms of world news agencies can be translated into Arabic in three ways: by indicating the lexical meaning; by indicating English abbreviated form as letter by letter & by indicating Arabic abbreviated form as a word. 2- Acronyms of world satellite TV's can be translated into Arabic in two ways: by indicating the lexical meaning & by indicating English abbreviated form as letter by letter. 3- Acronyms of world newspapers can be translated into Arabic in two ways: by indicating both the lexical meaning & Arabic transliteration of the English form. 4- Acronyms of U.N. & world organizati
... Show MoreIn this paper, the concept of a neutrosophic KU-algebra is introduced and some related properties are investigated. Also, neutrosophic KU-ideals of a neutrosophic KU-algebra are studied and a few properties are obtained. Furthermore, a few results of neutrosophic KU-ideals of a neutrosophic KU-algebra under homomorphism are discussed
(10)
This paper deals with finite element modeling of the ultimate load behavior of double skin composite (DSC) slabs. In a DSC slab, shear connectors in the form of nut bolt technique studs are used to transfer shear between the outer skin made of steel plates and the concrete core. The current study is based on finite element analysis using ANSYS Version 11 APDL release computer program. Experimental programmes were carried out by the others, two simply supported DSC beams were tested until failure under a concentrated load applied at the center. These test specimens were analyzed by the finite element method and the analyses have shown that these slabs displayed a high degree of flexural characteristics, ultimate strength,
... Show More
(1)
The concept of the order sum graph associated with a finite group based on the order of the group and order of group elements is introduced. Some of the properties and characteristics such as size, chromatic number, domination number, diameter, circumference, independence number, clique number, vertex connectivity, spectra, and Laplacian spectra of the order sum graph are determined. Characterizations of the order sum graph to be complete, perfect, etc. are also obtained.
(13)
(5)
Systems on Chips (SoCs) architecture complexity is result of integrating a large numbers of cores in a single chip. The approaches should address the systems particular challenges such as reliability, performance, and power constraints. Monitoring became a necessary part for testing, debugging and performance evaluations of SoCs at run time, as On-chip monitoring is employed to provide environmental information, such as temperature, voltage, and error data. Real-time system validation is done by exploiting the monitoring to determine the proper operation of a system within the designed parameters. The paper explains the common monitoring operations in SoCs, showing the functionality of thermal, voltage and soft error monitors. The different
... Show More
(4)
(3)
Cooperation spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks has an analogy to a distributed decision in wireless sensor networks, where each sensor make local decision and those decision result are reported to a fusion center to give the final decision according to some fusion rules. In this paper the performance of cooperative spectrum sensing examines using new optimization strategy to find optimal weight and threshold curves that enables each secondary user senses the spectrum environment independently according to a floating threshold with respect to his local environment. Our proposed approach depends on proving the convexity of the famous optimization problem in cooperative spectrum sensing that stated maximizing the probability of detec
... Show More
(6)
(5)