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.
A seemingly uncorrelated regression (SUR) model is a special case of multivariate models, in which the error terms in these equations are contemporaneously related. The method estimator (GLS) is efficient because it takes into account the covariance structure of errors, but it is also very sensitive to outliers. The robust SUR estimator can dealing outliers. We propose two robust methods for calculating the estimator, which are (S-Estimations, and FastSUR). We find that it significantly improved the quality of SUR model estimates. In addition, the results gave the FastSUR method superiority over the S method in dealing with outliers contained in the data set, as it has lower (MSE and RMSE) and higher (R-Squared and R-Square Adjus
... Show MoreIn this study, the stable isotop 18O and 2H has been used to investigate the interaction of surface water (SW), and groundwater (GW) in Al-Taji district/ Northern Baghdad for two seasons (March and August 2022). 16 Samples were collected from water resources in the Al-Taji district (Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater), in each season water samples from 8 Tigris channel, 5 drilled wells, and 3 Tigris River were taken for the analysis of the isotopes 18O and 2H. The average analysis results of 18O and 2H in the Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater were found to be -3.435‰ and -18.6094‰, -2.07167‰ and -17.81‰, -4.125‰ and -34.707‰ respectively. The results, generally, show a comparable range of isotope c
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Reflect the sustainable development of the interaction of three key elements are the economic component and the social component and the environmental component while focusing economic component to achieve economic growth and focuses social element to achieve social justice in the distribution of income and achieve prosperity, the environmental component related fields and including emphasizes the protection of the environment and to ensure the continuation and sustainability of resources physical, biological and form in which it believes the interaction required for development process real and effective and sustainable, and is considered the province of Kurdistan Iraq of important areas where the movement of developmental mount
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Residential complexes have witnessed a great demand in most countries worldwide, as they are one of the main infrastructure elements, in addition to achieving a developed urban landscape. However, complex residential projects in developing countries face various factors that could be improved in their implementation, especially in Iraq. Sixty-two experts in residential complex projects were interviewed and surveyed to verify these projects' failure factors,. Fifty-one factors were the main failure factors, divided into four main components (leadership, management system, external forces, and project resources). The Relatively Important Index (RII) is used to determine the relative importance factors and obtain the top tw
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This paper examines the change in planning pattern In Lebanon, which relies on vehicles as a semi-single mode of transport, and directing it towards re-shaping the city and introducing concepts of "smooth or flexible" mobility in its schemes; the concept of a "compact city" with an infrastructure based on a flexible mobility culture. Taking into consideration environmental, economical and health risks of the existing model, the paper focuses on the four foundations of the concepts of "city based on culture flexible mobility, "and provides a SWOT analysis to encourage for a shift in the planning methodology.
Foreign direct investment is considered one of important bases to blind economy for many. Countries as if the main stage for developing national economy ,so for this ,many of countries give great prominence to the role of drivel foreign investment due to its importance as one of economic growth pillars in the developing countries. They offer a support for modern technology, organizational and managerial skills.
Dneto the importance of direct foreign investment on the economic growth, today, we discover that Iraq in need to rebnlid the in frastructuve and renew what has been destroyed during was in many production and export institutions . as wel
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This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study evaluated the knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast cancer and breast self-examination [BSE] among 387 [302 females and 85 males] educated Iraqis affiliated to 2 Iraqi universities. The participants were categorized into 3 occupations: student [71.3%], teaching staff [10.3%] and administrative staff [18.3%]. About half of the participants had a low knowledge score [< 50%]; only 14.3% were graded as [Good] and above. Almost 75% of the participants believed that the best way to control breast cancer was through early detection and other possible preventive measures. Most participants [90.9%] had heard of BSE, the main source of informatio
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The aim of this novel native study was to determine the microbial contamination of broken and cracked imported commercial table egg in Baghdad markets and its economic effect. A total of 21510 commercial chicken table eggs were checked and surveyed from retail markets in different popular regions of Baghdad city during a year period from January 3rd to December 28th of 2018 and its microbial contamination were studied. Results revealed that significant differences (P<0.01) were appeared in the studied microbial counts during months of the study and significant differences (P<0.01) in the average counts between broken and cracked eggs and sound (not bro
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