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 research aims to enhance the level of evaluation of the performance of banking transactions control policies and procedures. The research is based on the following hypothesis: efficient transactions control policies and procedures contribute enhancing financial reporting, by assessing non-application gap of those policies and procedures in a manner that helps to prevent, discover, and correct material misstatements. The researchers designed an examination list that includes the control policies and procedures related to the transactions, as a guide to the bank audit program prepared by the Federal Financial Supervision Bureau. The research methodology is
... Show MoreIn spite of economic importance of sugar cane and sugar beet as they described as industrial crops they still face decreasing rates of production and productivity in Iraq , and their production was not able to satisfy the local industrial demands for sugar . Thus this study aimed at studying and analyzing, production and productivity of sugar cane and sugar beet in Iraq and this has been done by using non serial data that can be obtained from official offices in Iraq . The area and production of sugar cane in Iraq recorded positive annual growth rates during 1970- 1978 which were 6% and 5% consequently , while the productivity of sugar cane recorded at the same duration of time negative annual growth rate which was 1% , while they recorded
... Show MoreIncorporating waste byproducts into concrete is an innovative and promising way to minimize the environmental impact of waste material while maintaining and/or improving concrete’s mechanical characteristics and strength. The proper application of sawdust as a pozzolan in the building industry remains a significant challenge. Consequently, this study conducted an experimental evaluation of sawdust as a fill material. In particular, sawdust as a fine aggregate in concrete offers a realistic structural and economical possibility for the construction of lightweight structural systems. Failure under four-point loads was investigated for six concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) specimens. The results indicated that recycled lightweight co
... Show MoreThis study deals with segmenting the industrial market as an independent variable and targeting the industrial market as a dependent variable. Since the industrial sector represents one of the most important fundamental pillars to build the economies of countries and their development , the Iraqi industrial sector was chosen as a population for the study . Based on measuring the study variables , identifying them and testing the correlation and effect on each other , the study reached a group of findings:
1- Increasing the level of availability of study variables inside the companies “The study sample”.
2- There is a correlation between the independent v
... Show MoreNeed organizations today to move towards strategic thinking which means analyzing situations faced by particular challenges of change in the external environment, which makes it imperative for The Organization That to reconsider their strategies and orientations and operations, a so-called re-engineering to meet those challenges and pressures, to try to achieve improvement root in the installation of the organization and methodscompletion of its work towards achieving high levels of performance and that is reflected to achieve its objectives, and this is what aims to Current search to deal with implications characteristics of strategic thinking in the stages of application re-engineering business of the company General Industries
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The study discussed three areas in strategic thinking, namely, (patterns elements, outcomes) , this study aimed to measure extent to which strategic leaders have the type or types of patterns of strategic thinking, and measure the extent of their use of the elements of strategic thinking, and measurement of strategic thinking outcomes for managers at various levels , And to know the relationship between the modes of strategic thinking, elements and outcomes in organizations. the study included five banks and four hospitals and four colleges and universities, has been a research sample consisted of 168 individuals, distributed in positions (Director General , Director of Directorate , Director of
... Show MoreThe current study aims to investigate the effect of strategic knowledge management practices on an excellent performance at the Institution of Industrial Development and Research- the Ministry of Iraqi Industry (IDRMII). The present research is designed according to the descriptive method. To achieve the mentioned research objective, the researchers used the questionnaire as the main data collection tool. The research sample was 150 managers who are working at the top and middle management levels. To analyses the data gathered and reaching the results, several statistical techniques were used within AMOS.V25, SPSS.V21Software, This study reached a set of results, the most important of which is the existence of a positive correlat
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to show the level of banking leadership trends in the importance of organizational confidence and its reflection in the dimensions of the strategic position the research was applied in a bank (Al- Mansour Investment, Business Bay), and the Questionnaire Was adopted as a tool to collect data and information from the number of the sample (15) who are in allocation (Department Manager, Department Manager Department Manager, Division Officer, Unit Officer) and he used the statistical program (spss) to calculate (standard deviation, arithmetic mean, percentages, regression, analysis,F-test coefficient of determination R2, Coefficieent, square Kay and the research reached a number of conclusions, the mos
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