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.
Background and Aim: Canine parvovirus 2 (CPV-2) is a highly contagious virus that infects wild and domestic canines. Despite the use of a routine vaccination protocol, it is endemic in Iraq. The genetic drift of CPV-2 is a major issue worldwide because it abrogates virus control. In Iraq, there is a knowledge gap regarding the genetic sequences of asymptomatic and symptomatic CPV-2 cases. Therefore, this study aimed to perform a genetic analysis of viral capsid protein 1 (VP1) and viral capsid protein 2 (VP2), two major capsid-encoding genes, to demonstrate the possible role of certain mutations in triggering infection. Materials and Methods: Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases (n = 100/each) were tested by a polymerase chain reacti
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Social variables have a tremendous impact on the language spoken by the male and female genders, particularly in Eastern cultures. Because men and women in Arabic cultures are typically raised separately, they speak somewhat differently depending on their gender. Arabic is used exclusively in educational institutions in the Arab world. The objective of the present study was to examine certain social and linguistic aspects of the language spoken by females and males in mixed academic organisations from the point of view of female academics. It also examined some noted gender differences in previous gender studies of the interactional styles of the two genders in higher education institutions in Iraq from the perspective of f
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Introduction/Aim. Roughly six percent of all malignancies diagnosed in children are malignant bone tumors. They have a dramatic effect on psychological status of children and their families. The aim of the study was to analyze the clinico-pathological features of bone tumors in Iraqi children and to assess response to treatment, outcome, and survival. Patients and methods. Over an eleven-year period, a retrospective study was done for children with bone tumors conducted on patients data that included a battery of pre-treatment investigations including a complete blood count, serum electrolyte, hepatic, and renal profile, bone marrow aspirate and biopsy, fine-needle aspiration, and imaging studies. Results. Data of 41 children with b
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Cosmochthonius reticulatus Grandjean, 1947 (Acari: Oribatei: Cosmochthoniidae) and Rhysotritia ardua ardua C. L. Koch, 1841 ( Acari : Oribate : Euphthiracari¬dae), are two species of oribatids mites first recorded in Iraq from a woodland in the central part of Iraq. The two species are described and illustrated.
The deficit of the federal budget and the structural imbalances suffered by the Iraqi economy has affected the direction of research towards suggesting steps and mechanisms can be relied upon in the near term to form a broader base of non-oil revenues aimed at achieving a balanced budget, and to proceed to reform the financial situation, In reducing their financial dictates, whether capital or operational, which lead to significant financial and economic consequences. This also requires that the Iraqi political elite have the real will, strategic vision and full awareness that the implementation of these reforms has potential social and economic effects, with long-term measures to be taken. The aim is not only to reform the finan
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Background: War represents a major human crisis; it destroys communities and results in ingrained consequences for public health and well-being
Objective: We set this study to shed light on the public health status in Iraq after the successive wars, sanctions, sectarian conflicts, and terrorism, in light of certain health indicators.
Design: The primary source of data for this analysis comes from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and The World Health Organization disease surveillance.
Results: Most of the morbidity indicators are high, even those that are relatively declining recently, are still higher than those repor
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Forensic accounting (FA) is an important tool in exposing financial manipulation and corruption within institutions, making the role of FA essential in the Iraqi judicial system (IJS). This role suffers from limited implementation due to the lack of specialized legislation and insufficient awareness of its importance. The role of FA in the IJS can be enhanced by enhancing professional training, amending university curricula to include FA, and developing legislation regulating this field. Furthermore, cooperation between courts and the FA should be strengthened to ensure adequate financial evidence (FE) in judicial cases. For example, the experiences of developed countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, demonstrate how FA
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The present research aims at identifying the effect of the cognitive discrepancy strategy on the fourth-stage students’ achievement in literature and texts. The researcher adopted the null hypothesis: there is no statistically significant difference at the level (0.05) between the average grades of the experimental group who study literature and texts following the discrepancies strategy, and those who follow the traditional method. A post-achievement test of (60) paragraphs was administered to (6) students as the study sample. The results showed that the experimental group who studied literature and texts with the strategy of cognitive achieved better than the control group who followed the traditional method in the post-achievement t
... Show MoreThe Arabic pronouns received a lot of attention from the ancient Arab grammarians, so they explained their origins, the different forms of their structure, and the aspects of the Arabs’ use of them, and explained the aspects and reasons for these uses, with what they had of linguistic insight, which guided them to clarify the truth of these pronouns.
And recently, this research seeks new knowledge of the development of the structure of the nominative pronouns (he), (she), (them), (taa), and (waw) between dialects and towards classical Arabic, by analyzing the structure of these pronouns into their components. Its linguistic formulas are traced from the ancient Arabic texts, and by ancient I mean the texts of the era of linguistic ci