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.
Finding a path solution in a dynamic environment represents a challenge for the robotics researchers, furthermore, it is the main issue for autonomous robots and manipulators since nowadays the world is looking forward to this challenge. The collision free path for robot in an environment with moving obstacles such as different objects, humans, animals or other robots is considered as an actual problem that needs to be solved. In addition, the local minima and sharp edges are the most common problems in all path planning algorithms. The main objective of this work is to overcome these problems by demonstrating the robot path planning and obstacle avoidance using D star (D*) algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
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Objective: To find out the prevalence of anxiety and depression among Iraqi repatriated prisoners of Iran-Iraq war
(IRPOWs), and the relationship with some variables.
Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out from Oct. 18th, 2009 through Jan. 10th, 2010. A Snowball
sampling as a non-probability sampling technique was used to recruit 92 repatriates who had visited Ministry of
Human Rights. An instrument was constructed for this purpose. The constructed instrument consisted of six
demographic characteristics, and fourteen items to measure the level of anxiety and depression in prisoners of
war (POWs). Data were collected with using the constructed instrument and the process of the interview as means
for data col
The Industrial Banks in most countries in the world plays an essential and vital role in developing the industrial sector due to its effective importance in the economic and social development. The research aims to study the ability of the Industrial Bank of Iraq to the growth and development of the mixed industrial sector companies through loans granted to them. In addition, the research seeks to study credit policies pursued by the Industrial Bank of Iraq to finance the mixed industrial sector companies. The data of the research has been collected from the financial statements of the Industrial Banks of Iraq for the period 2007-2011, and by means of questionnaire distributed to a sample of the mixed industrial sector companies in
... Show MoreEcosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem se
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Iraq suffers from lack of water resources supply because the headwaters of the rivers located outside its borders and the influence of upstream countries on the quantities of flowing water, in addition to the increase of pressure on available water as a result of population increase and not adopting the principle of rationalization where misuse and wastage and lack of strategic vision to treat and manage water use in accordance with the economic implications fall. This is reflected fallout on water security and subsequently on national and food security, while the issue of using water resources is development top priority in different countries in the world because of the importance of water effect on the security of indivi
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A total of 33 Iraq male positive for Toxoplasmosis and Iraq male negative for Toxoplasmosis (controls) were studies to Evaluation of some biochemical and immunological parameters changes.The parameters included lipid profile such as (Cholesterol(C), Triglycerides(TG), High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and very Low-Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) and complement component C3 and C4. The results revealed significant decrease in the total cholesterol, Triglycerides, LDL and non-significant in vLDL (129.96±1.63, 130.69± 2.80, 87.19±1.97, 29.24± 0.83 mg/dl respectively) and non-significant increase in HDL(24.22 ±0.62) mg/dl compared with control group(152.07± 1.63, 156.48± 6.55, 99.26 ±1.39, 31.49± 1.30 and 21.31±
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The plant Borago officinalis, which belongs to the Boraginaceae family and Celebrated as borage, is one of the useful medicinal plants cultivated in Iraq. It was used in olde medicine in Iraq, Irane, Syria and Europe for management of various diseases. It is commonly used as an atonic, tranquilliser, management of cough, sore throat, pneumonia, swelling, inflammatory diseases, antioxidant, and anticancer. This project provides the first comprehensive research done in Iraq to study the phytochemicals and the methods of extraction and isolation of active constituents from Borago officinalis cultivated in Iraq. The plant was harvested in spring from AL-Rifai, Nassiriyah city, IRAQ in February 2019.were w
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Objective To highlight the main demographic characteristics and clinical profiles of female patients registered with breast cancer in Iraq; focusing on the impact of age.Methods This retrospective study enrolled 1172 female patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer at the Main Center for Early Detection of Breast Cancer/Medical City Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Data were extracted from an established information system, developed by the principal author under supervision of WHO, that was based on valid clinical records of Iraqi patients affected by breast cancer. The recorded information regarding clinical examination comprised positive palpable lumps, bloody nipple discharge, skin changes, bilateral breast involvement, tumor
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