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.
One of the recent significant but challenging research studies in computational biology and bioinformatics is to unveil protein complexes from protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). However, the development of a reliable algorithm to detect more complexes with high quality is still ongoing in many studies. The main contribution of this paper is to improve the effectiveness of the well-known modularity density ( ) model when used as a single objective optimization function in the framework of the canonical evolutionary algorithm (EA). To this end, the design of the EA is modified with a gene ontology-based mutation operator, where the aim is to make a positive collaboration between the modularity density model and the proposed
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Abstract
Experimental work from Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) tests was carried out design parameters (amplitude, and number of cycle which are formed the shape of electromagnetic pole), and technological parameters (current, cutting speed, working gap, and finishing time) all have an influence on the mechanical properties of the surface layer in MAF process. This research has made to study the effect of design and technological parameters on the surface roughness (Ra), micro hardness (Hv) and material removal (MR) in working zone. A set of experimental tests has been planned using response surface methodology according to Taguchi matrix (36) with three levels and six factors
... Show MoreThis study aims to recognize the process of using computer in publicschools in Ma`an governorate in terms of hardware, capabilities, and teachers usage. It also aims to identify the most important obstacles those schools face from a teachers perspective.
The study sample consists of (150) teachers from different disciplines. The researcher prepared two questionnaires related to the research pivotal, then presented to a group of arbitrators to be used in this final form. The data was analyzed statistically and the study concluded that there is a shortage in the computer services provided to teachers, and there is a w
... Show MoreThe research starts from studying the contractual budget, which is one of the modern trends in preparing public budgets, both operational and capital, in addition to meeting the requirements of the global trend to achieve sustainable growth in all fields, whether financial or non-financial, and tools for the contractual budget have been identified (participation contracts, planning Implementation, monitoring) and studying its impact in supporting sustainable development through its dimensions (economic, social, and environmental). The method of the questionnaire was adopted as a main tool in collecting information on research variables and distributing it to a sample of (70) individuals who dictate positions of professional respo
... Show MoreThis study aims to explore the relationship between the degree of application of digital leadership and the development of administrative work at the University of Tabuk. It further aims to examine the presence of statistically significant differences between the average responses of faculty members and employees at the University of Tabuk regarding the study axes that are attributed to the following variables: (scientific rank, gender, and job), the study used the descriptive approach in its correlative style, and the questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection, as it was applied to a simple random of (310) members of the faculty and staff. University of Tabuk. The results showed that the degree of digital leadership applicatio
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Environmental Tax is deemed as one of the most important tools that can be used to eliminate the problem of oil –based environment pollution resulted out of oil products processes and this has been significantly approved by the experience in those leading countries in the field of protecting the environment against pollution whereas oil-producing countries which are rather awkward in maintaining the environment such as Iraq , suffer from notorious environmental effects pertaining to oil product processes.
The problem of the research is represented the increased and constant rise in the volume of the environmental pollutants resulted from the processes managed by the intern
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The aim of this article is to study the dynamical behavior of an eco-epidemiological model. A prey-predator model comprising infectious disease in prey species and stage structure in predator species is suggested and studied. Presumed that the prey species growing logistically in the absence of predator and the ferocity process happened by Lotka-Volterra functional response. The existence, uniqueness, and boundedness of the solution of the model are investigated. The stability constraints of all equilibrium points are determined. The constraints of persistence of the model are established. The local bifurcation near every equilibrium point is analyzed. The global dynamics of the model are investigated numerically and confronted with the obt
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Due to the developments taking place in the field of communications, informatics systems and knowledge management in the current century, and the obligations and burdens imposed on the business organization to keep pace with these developments, the traditional methods of administrative decision-making are no longer feasible, as recent trends have emerged in management that focus on the need to rely on quantitative methods such as operations research.. The latter is one of the results of World War II, which appeared for the first time in Britain to manage war operations. The first method used in this field is the linear programming method. The use of operations research has developed greatly in the past years, and the methods of analysis in
... Show MoreIn this paper, wireless network is planned; the network is predicated on the IEEE 802.16e standardization by WIMAX. The targets of this paper are coverage maximizing, service and low operational fees. WIMAX is planning through three approaches. In approach one; the WIMAX network coverage is major for extension of cell coverage, the best sites (with Band Width (BW) of 5MHz, 20MHZ per sector and four sectors per each cell). In approach two, Interference analysis in CNIR mode. In approach three of the planning, Quality of Services (QoS) is tested and evaluated. ATDI ICS software (Interference Cancellation System) using to perform styling. it shows results in planning area covered 90.49% of the Baghdad City and used 1000 mob
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