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 study aimed to find relationship between thymidine kinase-1 (TK-1) as tumor marker and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in Iraqi children patients with thrombocytopenia and with thrombocytosis. The present study conducted 60 children patients (30 patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) and 30 patients with thrombocytosis caused by leukemia) attending the Children Fever Hospital in the Medical City / Baghdad, and 30 healthy children as a control group. All study groups were with range ages (1-15) years, and they were diagnosed by assay of platelet count, Prothrombin Time (PT), and partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT). The results shown elevation in plasma TK-1 and TAC values in children patients with thrombocytopenia and w
... Show MoreMoringa oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts have been reported to inhibit gram-positive facultative anaerobe growth and inhibit the formation of biofilm on tooth surfaces. The current study aimed to assess the antibacterial effect of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate extracts and their combinations against Porphyromonas gingivalis. The antimicrobial sensitivity, minimum inhibition concentrations (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentrations after treatment with the aqueous extracts of M. oleifera L. and red pomegranate as well as their combination against clinically isolated P. gingivalis were determined using agar well diffusion and two-fold serial dilution. The anti-biofilm activity of the extracts and their combination was evaluat
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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) represent one of the key technologies in internet of things (IoTs) networks. Since WSNs have finite energy sources, there is ongoing research work to develop new strategies for minimizing power consumption or enhancing traditional techniques. In this paper, a novel Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) algorithm is proposed for mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs) for energy saving. Performance evaluation of the clustering process with the GMM algorithm shows a remarkable energy saving in the network of up to 92%. In addition, a comparison with another clustering strategy that uses the K-means algorithm has been made, and the developed method has outperformed K-means with superior performance, saving ener
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The industrial sector of the important drivers of economic activity sectors due to having the capabilities and the potential to qualify biggest contribution to the economic development of the country, which requires the availability of a higher degree of safety in industrial organizations, and the preservation of the lives of employees and workers in emergency situations, and that all the work is not without its dangers, which produces in a year of uncertainty in the possible events get in the future, therefore, reduce the dangers that could be exposed to industrial organizations and management are at the heart of the strategic direction which works to stimulate thinking about the future and respond to the changes that occur in theextern
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This study aims to identify both the importance of using (LinkedIn) and its drawbacks for researchers and specialists in the field of information and knowledge technologies. The study relied mainly on the statistical method (analytical method) from the collection of data tools (questionnaire) that was distributed electronically (Google Forms) to the sample community of (55) instructors. The feedback received illustrates that (46) instructors among those who participated in the questionnaire subscribed to (LinkedIn) and the rest did not. Their data was analyzed statistically, and the general arithmetic mean and the hypothetical mean was extracted for them to achieve the objectives of the study and prove their hypotheses. The site positively
... Show Moreتعد المحاسبة بشكل عام علماً لكنها ليست من العلوم الصرفة وإنما من العلوم الإجتماعية مما يتطلب للتعامل مع المواضيع المحاسبية الأخذ بنظر الاعتبار الأشخاص المعنيين بالموضوع سواء كانوا المعدين للمخرجات المحاسبية أي المحاسبين، أو الاطراف ذوي المصالح المعنيين والمستفيدين من هذه المخرجات أي المستخدمين، ويعد المحاسب جزءاً من العملية الاجرائية نفسها وبهذا يكون دوره مزدوجاً يجمع بين كونه القائم بالبحث والقي
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This research sheds light on the contributions of a group of scientific Kurdish scholars in the seventh and eighth Hijri centuries, who devoted themselves to serving science with the bad political and economic conditions at the time, and the research pointed to the flowering of science and how students travel in order to provide them with science, obtain a scientific certificate, then take up The research efforts of the scholars in the two Hijri century mentioned in the science of the Qur’an, whether in the field of recitations, intonation or interpretation, and the research ends with a conclusion in which I mentioned the most important conclusions reached in this research.