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.
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Dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis (SD) are common skin disorders affecting the scalp and extending to other body sites in the case of SD. They are associated with pruritus and scaling, causing an esthetical disturbance in the population affected. Treatment of such conditions involves using a variety of drugs for long terms, thus optimizing drug formulation is essential to improve therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance. Conventional topical formulations like shampoos and creams have been widely used but their use is associated with disadvantages. To overcome such effects, novel topical nanotechnology-based formulations are currently under investigation. In the following article, we highlight recently published formulatio
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Exploitation of mature oil fields around the world has forced researchers to develop new ways to optimize reservoir performance from such reservoirs. To achieve that, drilling horizontal wells is an effective method. The effectiveness of this kind of wells is to increase oil withdrawal. The objective of this study is to optimize the location, design, and completion of a new horizontal well as an oil producer to improve oil recovery in a real field located in Iraq. “A” is an oil and gas condensate field located in the Northeast of Iraq. From field production history, it is realized the difficulty to control gas and water production in this kind of complex carbonate reservoir with vertical producer wells. In this study, a horizont
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Presupposition, which indicates a prior assumption, is a vital notion in both semantic and pragmatic disciplines. It refers to assumptions implicitly made by interlocutors, which are necessary for the correct interpretation of an utterance. Although there is a general agreement that presupposition is a universal property of Language, there are various propositions concerning its nature. However, this research work proposes that presupposition is a contextual term, thus, is more pragmatic than semantic in its nature.Although Semantics and Pragmatics are two distinct disciplines, they are interrelated and complementary to each other, since meaning proper involves both, and since there is no clear borderline between the two disciplines. How
... Show MoreThis study was planned to evaluate the renal function tests and liver function tests and it carried out in Al-Yarmouk hospital,Baghdad –Iraqin patients withtype 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus by measuring(uric acid,urea and creatinine) ,Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Seventy five individuals of Iraqi adults (male) were divided into three groups, 25 patients with type1 diabetes mellitus ,25 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 25 normal individuals were taken as control group. The mean value of uric acid, urea and creatinine was higher significantly in patients thanin control group (P< 0.05),while the correlation(p< 0.01) between age ,creatinine in type 1 and between age and (Urea, Uric acid ,cr
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This study aimed to identify the business risks using the approach of the client strategy analysis in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. A study of business risks and their impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process has been performed to establish a cognitive framework of the main objective of this study, in which the descriptive analytical method has been adopted. A survey questionnaire has been developed and distributed to the targeted group of audit firms which have profession license from the Auditors Association in the Gaza Strip (63 offices). A hundred questionnaires have been distributed to the study sample of which, a total of 84 where answered and
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The administration on the basis of the activities designed to evaluate the performance of activities in terms of cost, time and quality by identifying activities that add value and those that are no add value and enables the administration of making up their own continuous improvement in production, through lower costs and reduce the time and improve the quality and reduce the incidence of spoilage and waste, y based search Ally premise that (the continuous improvement of the adoption of management style on the basis of the activities helps management in decision-making wise to reduce costs) to prove the hypothesis has sought research to achieve its goal of Alkadivh and Alkoppelan &nb
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