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 research delts with study seven species of seeds and wild varieties wild belonging to the genus Medicago L., these species are: M. constricta Dur., M. coronata (L.) Bartal., M. intertexta (L.) Mill., M. intertexta.var. ciliaris (L.) Hyen., M. laciniata (L.) Mill., M. lupulina L., M. minima (L.) Bartal. and M. sativa L., the research involved characteristics of shapes, dimensions, colors and the nature of the surface ornamentation of seeds and also the hilum site. the seeds forms ranged between crescent, reniform and ovate, in addition there was a clear difference in seeds dimensions in height and width, while, the color has been vary between light brown to brown and dark brown. The nature of the surface ornamentation was smooth, retic
... Show MoreBunium is one of the interested genus that grow in different region of Iraq, it is within the family Umbelliferae (Apiaceae), and the species within this family have a considerable fruit characteristics. The species that were chosen in this study are: B. brachyactis (Post) H. Wolff, B. caroides (Boiss.) Hausskn. Ex Bornm., B. chaerophylloides (Regel& Schmalh.) Drude, B. rectangulum Boiss. & Hausskn., B. verruculosum C.C.Towns. and B. avromanum (Boiss.& Hausskn) Drude., the study found that the fruits of these species have 5 protrusions different in size but all have the same number of vittae, but some are semiler in size and some are not, the number of vascular element are varied between these species, anatomical charact
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Zanthoxylum L. 1753 belongs to the family Rutaceae. The plant, with its forest green color and with its distinctive fragrance attracted the attention of the study, specially it was an exotic to the environment of Iraq. Zanthoxylum is an exotic plant produced to Iraq and planted in gardens as an ever-green aromatic plant named (BUKHUR HINDI), as it is known among sellers and farmers in Iraq, because of the aromatic smell that emanated from the leaves and resembles Indian incense. The plant adapted to environmental conditions and succeeded in growing and blooming. It was examined and diagnosed for the first time in Iraq as Zanthoxylum beechyanum K. Koch. (Chinese pepper tree). Morphological characteristics and anatomical characteristi
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The concept of implementing e-government systems is growing widely all around the world and becoming an interest to all governments. However, governments are still seeking for effective ways to implement e-government systems properly and successfully. As services of e-government increased and citizens’ demands expand, the e-government systems become more costly to satisfy the growing needs. The cloud computing is a technique that has been discussed lately as a solution to overcome some problems that an e-government implementation or expansion is going through. This paper is a proposal of a new model for e-government on basis of cloud computing. E-Government Public Cloud Model EGPCM, for e-government is related t
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Discussed the research variables are important, privatization options and strategic analysis of the external environment, and that the purpose of the research is the trade-off between privatization options and choose the most appropriate alternative in proportion to the external environment, the research aims to determine the privatization the most appropriate option for companies and public contracting, showing the importance of the study provide the privatization of public companies as a strategy can all its way public sector organizations from the transfer of work practices or private sector organizations and mechanisms to it as contributing to improving the level of skills Develop the current and future level of performance,
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This work presents external morphological study of the leafhopper Empoasca decedens
Paoli, 1932 particularly male genitalia, which were dissected and illustrated.
The genus Empoasca Walsh (Typhlocybinae: Empoascini) contains small, slender, fragile
and generally green leafhoppers. The overall length ranges from 3-3.5 mm. Members of this
genus are charachterized by their uniformly green color, inner and outer apical cells of
forewing not attaining wing apex, second and third apical cells are sessile or triangular or
even short stalked, submarginal vein of hindwing extends around wing apex and turned
beneath costal margin, apical thirds of tibiae and tarsal segments including claws are
prominently green while other
This study focuses on producing wood-plastic composites using unsaturated polyester resin reinforced with Pistacia vera shell particles and wood industry waste powder. Composites with reinforcement ratios of 0%, 20%, 30%, and 40% were prepared and tested for thermal conductivity, impact strength, hardness, and compressive strength. The results revealed that thermal conductivity increases with reinforcement, while maintaining good thermal insulation, reaching a peak value of 0.633453 W/m·K. Hardness decreased with increased reinforcement, reaching a minimum nominal hardness value of 0.9479. Meanwhile, impact strength and compressive strength improved, with peak values of 14.103 k/m² and 57.3864568 MPa, respectively. The main aim is to manu
... Show MoreMicrowave heating is caused by the ability of the materials to absorb microwave energy and convert it to heat. The aim of this study is to know the difference that will occur when heat treating the high strength aluminum alloys AA7075-T73 in a microwave furnace within different mediums (dry and acidic solution) at different times (30 and 60) minutes, on mechanical properties and fatigue life. The experimental results of microwave furnace heat energy showed that there were variations in the mechanical properties (ultimate stress, yielding stress, fatigue strength, fatigue life and hardness) with the variation in mediums and duration times when compared with samples without treatment. The ultimate stress, yielding stress and fatigue streng
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