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.
The present investigation developed the ester prodrugs of Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), Mefenamic acid and Flurbiprofen by conjugating with the natural antioxidant, 4-methyl umbelliferone that resulted the formation of Mefenamic acid-umbelliferone ester prodrug and Flurbiprofen-umbelliferone ester prodrug .The principal objective this study is the synthesis of the ester prodrugs of NSAIDs with the enhanced therapeutic activity and minimized side effects. Prodrugs were synthesized by coupling method using N,N’- dicyclohexylcarbodiimide/4-dimethylaminopyrimidine, subjected to physical, chemical characterization, spectral characterization (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Mass spectra),hydro
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For over a decade, educational technology has been used sparingly in our schools and universities. Online training courses have been used since 2003 to fill the gaps in our learning system and to add extra program besides classroom learning. This paper aims to investigate the Iraqi EFL instructors’ participating in online training courses and its influence on the process of teaching and learning.
The sample of present study consists of 30 instructors from University of Baghdad. The questionnaire of sixteen items was constructed. After ensuring validity and reliability of questionnaire, it was applied on March 2013 and the result shows that most of instructors improve their teaching methods b
... Show MoreData hiding is the process of encoding extra information in an image by making small modification to its pixels. To be practical, the hidden data must be perceptually invisible yet robust to common signal processing operations. This paper introduces a scheme for hiding a signature image that could be as much as 25% of the host image data and hence could be used both in digital watermarking as well as image/data hiding. The proposed algorithm uses orthogonal discrete wavelet transforms with two zero moments and with improved time localization called discrete slantlet transform for both host and signature image. A scaling factor ? in frequency domain control the quality of the watermarked images. Experimental results of signature image
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The extracting of personal sprite from the whole image faced many problems in separating the sprite edge from the unneeded parts, some image software try to automate this process, but usually they couldn't find the edge or have false result. In this paper, the authors have made an enhancement on the use of Canny edge detection to locate the sprite from the whole image by adding some enhancement steps by using MATLAB. Moreover, remove all the non-relevant information from the image by selecting only the sprite and place it in a transparent background. The results of comparing the Canny edge detection with the proposed method shows improvement in the edge detection.
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Introduction:
Many business owners suffer major financial problems during periods of financial stagnation, the decline of markets and businesses, or under the impact of financial shocks for certain reasons that result in large debts and the consequent financial and legal obligations. This is the beginning of a long and endless path of suffering and the search for a safe exit. It is even worse for financial institutions to facilitate financial solutions that rely on lending as a solution to their financial problem. Debt and its consequences increase, and the problem deepens and becomes complicated until things become entangled and the escape or declaration of bank
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We presented here a 65years old lady with an unusual presentation of a large epigastric hernia of twenty years duration .The swelling was occupying all the right hypochondrial region .The diagnosis was made on r^E^a-operative identification of the defect in the linea alba which wassutured after removal of the hernial sac and its contents .The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient remained with no complications or recurrence for more than two years follow up.
Women issues occupy an important place in international and development projects and programs. This is one of the goals of 21 Century announced during universal summit conference in 2000. The goals are : teaching children, reducing the average of the dead, in addition to the main goal which is reducing the poor level in 2015.
The increasing number of countries that adopt democratic policies, economic freedom and openness lead to heighten and develop the role of women in different ways. As a result, many feminism journals have appeared. Since journals help people to make decisions about public issues as well as acquiring new knowledge, it stimulates women to make decisions.
Feminism journalism takes a new trend. It has become specia
Water injection equipments such as pipelines, which are used in the second recovery of oil in the Al-Ahdeb wells, suffer from the corrosion in water during maintaining vacuum deoxygenated tower that used to decrease concentration of the dissolved oxygen gas in the water from 6.2-9.1 ppm to o.5 ppm. This study involved calculation the corrosion rates of the internal surfaces of the pipelines either during operation of the vacuum unit or when the tower out of operation. Finally, find the solution by one of the following suggestions. In the first suggestion removal of the dissolved O2 from water is achieved by increasing the dosage of the oxygen scavenger (sodium sulphite). The second suggestion involves re
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