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.
ABSTRACT Background: Cortical bone thickness is important for the stability of mini implants. Placing mini implants in sites of favorable cortical bone thickness would guarantee better initial stability and long-term success. The aim of this study was to investigate gender, side and jaw differences of the buccal cortical bone thickness as a guide for orthodontic mini screw placement. Materials and Methods: The sample was selected from the patients attending the Specialized Health Center in Al-Sadr City / 3D department. Thirty patients (15 males and 15 females) were selected and cone beam computerized tomographic images were done. Then the buccal cortical bone thickness was measured at thirteen inter radicular sites in the maxilla and mandib
... Show MoreExisting leachate models over–or underestimates leachate generation by up to three orders of magnitude. Practical experiments show that channeled flow in waste leads to rapid discharge of large leachate volumes and heterogeneous moisture distribution. In order to more accurately predict leachate generation, leachate models must be improved. To predict moisture movement through waste, the two–domain PREFLO, are tested. Experimental waste and leachate flow values are compared with model predictions. When calibrated with experimental parameters, the PREFLO provides estimates of breakthrough time. In the short term, field capacity has to be reduced to 0.12 and effective storage and hydraulic conductivity of the waste must be increased to
... Show MoreThe proposal of nonlinear models is one of the most important methods in time series analysis, which has a wide potential for predicting various phenomena, including physical, engineering and economic, by studying the characteristics of random disturbances in order to arrive at accurate predictions.
In this, the autoregressive model with exogenous variable was built using a threshold as the first method, using two proposed approaches that were used to determine the best cutting point of [the predictability forward (forecasting) and the predictability in the time series (prediction), through the threshold point indicator]. B-J seasonal models are used as a second method based on the principle of the two proposed approaches in dete
... Show MoreAbstract:
Objective: To know the effect of televised media violence on the relationship of Children's primary school with mates and identify association between the demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status for primary school children and their relation with exposure to televised violence media.
Methodology: simple probability sample of 221 children were selected from 1425 children are learning in schools in Al-Nasiriyah City.
Results: Results of the current study showed that (53.8%) of children exposed to Televised media violence be relationship with their mates weak, (46.2%) of them have their relationship with their mates good, as well as the study showed that the presence significant correlation with males genders
This research is under the title (Construction Grammar in the Kurdish language), which in turn is an attempt to present grammar and Kurdish grammar from the perspective of the constructive of Cognitive Linguistics. The construction as a term in the Kurdish language base was not recent, as it was discussed in other schools in a specific way from the perspective of language schools, but the subject of construction with a perceived background includes specific purposes, which is how to build the linguistic base by being a template accessible to its speakers, and in the cases of speaking it, not to mention how it is perceived and the level it is familiar with by its speakers. The nominal purpose of the Construction is Unification of form-mea
... Show MoreWireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) are a type of sensor network that contains sensor nodes equipped with cameras, microphones; therefore the WMSNS are able to produce multimedia data such as video and audio streams, still images, and scalar data from the surrounding environment. Most multimedia applications typically produce huge volumes of data, this leads to congestion. To address this challenge, This paper proposes Modify Spike Neural Network control for Traffic Load Parameter with Exponential Weight of Priority Based Rate Control algorithm (MSNTLP with EWBPRC). The Modify Spike Neural Network controller (MSNC) can calculate the appropriate traffi
... Show MoreWater supply networks are marred by serious risks of imperceptible pipeline leakage, posing sustainability and performance threats. This article highlights the use of vibratory signal features to get around the drawbacks of traditional methods in a highly detailed framework for leak detection based on CatBoost. demonstrated excellent diagnostic performance and carried out a thorough test performance evaluation on five leakage configurations . The expected system achieved an accuracy of 98.1% (variance (well within x/3% of expected):, beating traditional competitors such as Random Forest (97.3%) and Support Vector Machine (93.8%). For example, the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.995, in
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, AA Noaimi, ZN Al-Khafaji…, Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 2016 - Cited by 2