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.
Abstract
The issue of inequality in distribution of income and / or consumption expenditure is related to economic welfare because there is an inverse relationship between the economic welfare on the one hand, and the degree of inequality, on the other hand. Despite the fact that inequality is considered as normal phenomenon in every society, but if it exceeded certain limits it will lead to undesirable economic, social and political consequences. Therefore, the availability of indicators about inequality is a necessary tool for planning and evaluation of economic development programs. So, current study is aiming at measuring and analyzing the degree of inequality in distribution of consumpti
... Show MoreResearch objective: This research aims to unveil how to use the method of referral in understanding the Holy Quran.
The reason for choosing the research: The one that invited me to write on this topic is the importance of the referral method, so I liked the research in it, and unveiled this wonderful Qur’anic method, so that it helps to understand the intention of God Almighty in his dear book.
The research plan: The research was divided into three topics and a conclusion.
As for the first topic, it is divided into two requirements. The first requirement deals with the definition of referral language.
In the second re
Wet granulation method was used instead of conventional pan coating or fluidized –bed coating technique to prepare enteric-coated diclofenac sodium granules, using ethanolic solution of EudragitTM L100 as coating, binding and granulating agent .Addition of PEG400 or di-n-butyl phthalate as a plasticizer was found to improve the enteric property of the coat.
Part of the resulted granules was filled in hard gelatin capsules (size 0), while the other part was compressed into tablets with and without disintegrant.
The release profile of these two dosage forms in 0.1N HCl (pH 1.2)for 2 hours, and in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) for 45 minutes as well as the release kinetic were compared with that of the en
... Show MoreThe research seeks to identify the dimensions of creative thinking and its impact on the re-engineering of hotel service operations by analyzing the correlation and impact between research variables as well as comparing the research sample The importance of the research comes from the need to motivate managers the importance of creative thinking among workers in the researched hotels because it is an essential part in the re-engineering of hotel services. To achieve this a questionnaire was designed containing (33) items that include the independent research variables (creative thinking) and the accredited (re-engineering the hotel service) and distributed to a sample of (50) individuals represented by (Commissioner Director, Dep
... Show MoreThe concept of intertextuality was one of the problems that occupied the attention of critics and critics in targeting the structure of textual intertextuality between texts and their overlap in the process of producing meaning. Until intertextuality became a stable term and it can be monitored in the structure of the theatrical text and determining the mechanisms of this intertextuality between texts through fields and classifications agreed upon by the most important critics who wrote and considered intertextuality. Perhaps our previous research (the approach of exposure in the epistemological hallway to intertextuality) was an attempt to interview a terminology, which the researcher intended to monitor, through the mechanisms of inter
... Show MoreThis research addresses a problem manifested in a main question: what is the role of the digital media in marketing the artistic products? in order to determine the role played by the digital media in the disclosure and promotion of the artistic product, its price and places of distribution, as the basic elements of the marketing mixture.
This is a descriptive research in which the researcher used the survey method to check the opinions of a sample chosen according to the (proportion) method from the research community represented by instructors and students of the college of Fine Arts- University of Dayala.
... Show MoreThe catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol has been studied in a trickle bed reactor
using active carbon prepared from date stones as catalyst by ferric and zinc chloride activation (FAC and ZAC). The activated carbons were characterized by measuring their surface area and adsorption capacity besides conventional properties, and then checked for CWAO using a trickle bed reactor operating at different conditions (i.e. pH, gas flow rate, LHSV, temperature and oxygen partial pressure). The results showed that the active carbon (FAC and ZAC), without any active metal supported, gives the highest phenol conversion. The reaction network proposed account
... Show MorePanax ginseng (PG), one of the most widely used herbal medicines, has demonstrated various beneficial effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer impacts. Naturally occurring ginsenosides in the ginseng plant inhibit cell proliferation and significantly reduce liver damage induced by certain chemicals. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a primary mycotoxin due to its hepatotoxic, immunotoxic, and oncogenic effects in animal models and humans. In this study, we examined the effects of assorted doses of PG aqueous crude extract on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 1 and 7 (MMP-1 and MMP-7) in the kidney, spleen, and liver of experimental AFB1-exposed mice, using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Mice were orally administered
... Show MoreThe ascaroid nematode Contracaecum rudolphii was recovered in large numbers from the
digestive tract of Phalacrocorax carbo collected in Baghdad area, Central Iraq. The infection
rates of the two sexes of the bird and some meristic and morphometric characters of the
parasite that allowed species determination of the nematode Contracaecum rudolphii were
discussed. This finding represents a new host record for this nematode in Iraq.