The impact of organisational culture and leadership on performance improvement in Iraq

In 2013, the World Bank ranked Iraq 165 out of 185 countries in its overall “ease of doing business” category. Transparency International ranked Iraq 169 out of 176 in its 2012 Corruption Perception Index (BEBA, 2013). This reflects the poor performance of the public sector organisations responsible for the delivery of the various services in Iraq. By looking at the literature, it is clear that organisational culture and leadership have a significant impact on the performance of organisations. Thus, this makes them important factors that need to be taken into consideration when reforming public sector performance in the developing world. However, there has not been any research that discusses this relationship from the context of the public sector in Iraq. Therefore, this paper aims at expanding the base of knowledge and empirically tests the impact of leadership, people and organisational culture on a public sector organisation’s performance in Iraq. The study has used a public service “Practices & Performance” Benchmarking tool called PROBE, which stands for PROmoting Business Excellence, to assess the current organisational leadership and people practices of a government organisation and has benchmarked them to best practices of world-class organisations. Interviews have also been conducted, first with the staff members to gain consensus on the assessment results. Then the organisation’s customers (who are mainly contractors) have also been interviewed to understand their level of satisfaction with the current practices of the organisation. The result derived from the interviews accord with the results generated by the PROBE tool. The assessment result has showed how poor leadership and people practices have led to a weak overall organisational performance. This result supports previous studies and confirms the impact of organisational culture, people and leadership on the performance of organisations

Effet de l’incorporation de la noix de cajou dans les rations alimentaires sur les performances de croissance des porcs : phases post-sevrage et de croissance

Quatre types d’aliments dont le taux d’incorporation de noix est variable ont été formulés pour les stades post-sevrage et de croissance. Ces aliments ont été testés sur 120 porcs (Large White x Piétrain) x (Landrace x Duroc) par stade physiologique. En post-sevrage, il n’y a eu aucun effet de l’anacarde sur les paramètres de croissance de l’animal. En croissance, le poids vif des animaux ayant reçu les rations à 7 et 9% d’anacarde a baissé de 2 à 3 kg environ par rapport à ceux de la ration à 0% d’anacarde. Le gain moyen quotidien (GMQ) du lot à 9% d’anacarde est environ 30 g/j inférieur au lot sans anacarde. Les aliments contenant 7 et 9% d’anacarde sont environ 65 g/j moins ingérés que celui ne contenant pas d’anacarde (P<0,05). L’anacarde n’a pas eu d’effet sur l’indice de consommation aux stades physiologiques étudiés de l’animal. En ce qui concerne la santé de l’animal, l’anacarde n’a eu aucun impact négatif sur les animaux. Néanmoins, en phase de croissance, le taux de créatinine pour les lots à 9% d’anacarde baisse de 3 mg en moyenne par rapport au lot à 0% d’anacarde (P<0,05).Mots clés : Porc, noix de cajou, croissance, santé, stade physiologiqu

Level of awareness, attitude and perception about human papilloma virus vaccine among University of Mauritius students

The rising number of HPV infections is of global concern. Hence, this study helps to assess awareness, attitude, and perception regarding the HPV vaccine among young people of various fields and both genders as they are equally susceptible to the infection. These are essential to prevent complications like cervical cancer. A cross- sectional quantitative study was carried out, involving online questionnaires in English, French and Kreol Morisien languages distributed on various student platforms. There was randomization of data. Participation was entirely voluntary. 58% of respondents have heard of HPV infection. Female gender and Health Sciences students were more aware of HPV infection. 68.5% of respondents reported that they think the vaccine is safe and 77 % of participants are willing to be vaccinated against HPV post the survey. Awareness about HPV infection and vaccines is relatively high among girls and Health Sciences students. Public health efforts to educate students on HPV and cervical cancer should be strengthened to help curb the rising incidence in Mauritius. Therefore, stakeholders should be proactive to address vaccine hesitancy and increase awareness of vaccine safety. Boys should also be included in the National Immunization Programme to enhance the primary prevention of HPV infection. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[12]: 41-48). Le nombre croissant d'infections au VPH est une préoccupation mondiale. Par conséquent, cette étude aide à évaluer la sensibilisation, l'attitude et la perception concernant le vaccin contre le VPH chez les jeunes de divers domaines et des deux sexes, car ils sont également sensibles à l'infection. Ceux-ci sont essentiels pour prévenir les complications comme le cancer du col de l'utérus. Une étude quantitative transversale a été réalisée, impliquant des questionnaires en ligne en langues anglaise, française et créole morisienne distribués sur différentes plateformes étudiantes. Il y a eu une randomisation des données. La participation était entièrement volontaire. 58% des répondants ont entendu parler de l'infection au VPH. Les étudiantes et étudiants en sciences de la santé étaient plus conscients de l'infection au VPH. 68,5 % des répondants ont déclaré qu'ils pensaient que le vaccin était sûr et 77 % des participants étaient disposés à se faire vacciner contre le VPH après l'enquête. La sensibilisation à l'infection au VPH et aux vaccins est relativement élevée chez les filles et les étudiants en sciences de la santé. Les efforts de santé publique pour éduquer les étudiants sur le VPH et le cancer du col de l'utérus devraient être renforcés pour aider à freiner l'augmentation de l'incidence à Maurice. Par conséquent, les parties prenantes doivent être proactives pour lutter contre la réticence à la vaccination et accroître la sensibilisation à la sécurité des vaccins. Les garçons devraient également être inclus dans le programme national de vaccination afin d'améliorer la prévention primaire de l'infection par le VPH. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[12]: 41-48)

Adaptive filtering of evoked potentials with radial-basis-function neural network prefilter

Evoked potentials (EPs) are time-varying signals typically buried in relatively large background noise. To extract the EP more effectively from noise, we had previously developed an approach using an adaptive signal enhancer (ASE) (Chen et al., 1995). ASE requires a proper reference input signal for its optimal performance. Ensemble- and moving window-averages were formerly used with good results. In this paper, we present a new method to provide even more effective reference inputs for the ASE. Specifically, a Gaussian radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was used to preprocess raw EP signals before serving as the reference input. Since the RBFNN has built-in nonlinear activation functions that enable it to closely fit any function mapping, the output of RBFNN can effectively track the signal variations of EP. Results confirmed the superior performance of ASE with RBFNN over the previous method.published_or_final_versio

Public relations communications in public diplomacy : Libyan institutions in Egypt and the UK

Libya's recent past has limited any potential economic and political benefits, such as interaction, cooperation and association, which positive perceptions of the country might bring about. However, following the revolution of 17 February 2011, Libya has employed public relations communications in its public diplomacy efforts. Yet these efforts have not been subject to any evaluative assessment with regard to public relations communications models, methods, strategies, and themes provided to foreign publics abroad. The key aim of this study is to provide an enriched understanding of Libyan institutions’ public relations practices post 2011 revolution, utilizing the interpretivist paradigm and inductive reasoning due to a lack of previous studies addressing Libyan public relations practices for public diplomacy purposes. Content analysis and interviews were used to investigate the behaviours, opinions, and attitudes of public relations practitioners in Libyan institutions in Egypt and the UK. Anholt’s Nation Brand theory and Grunig’s Excellence theory are proposed as a theoretical framework used to gain a comprehensive understanding of the practice of public relations adopted by Libyan institutions. The findings indicate that this practice depends heavily on a one-way communication model aimed at publicity that concentrates on two key themes: People and Governance. Two image-repair strategies have been utilized by these institutions: the reduction of offensiveness and corrective action. However, the findings also suggest that Libyan institutions in Egypt and the UK do not employ any evaluation strategies to assess the success of their public relations efforts. The study concludes that Libyan public relations practice has not adopted the new concept of public diplomacy in its communication efforts; instead, it has adopted the old, narrow concept of public diplomacy: providing information to that public, most likely through the publicity model. The study is the first to present a comprehensive understanding of the practice of public relations of Libyan institutions abroad. The theoretical framework may be utilized for future academic studies concerning the converging relationship between public relations and public diplomacy. The study also offers a set of recommendations to improve public relations practices in Libyan institutions abroad

A strategic approach for improving government organisations’ performance to attract foreign direct investment : a case study of Iraq infrastructure

Infrastructure development is considered a key facilitator for achieving economic growth in developed as well as developing world, and has a direct impact on the growth and overall development of an economy. Iraq, similar to many developing countries, has a considerable lack of infrastructure. Nevertheless, it has been found that attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play an important role in addressing this lack. A vital step for governments to attract FDI is to create an organisational environment attractive to Multinational Corporations (MNCs). Iraq is internationally recognised as a country whose government organisations are highly corrupted and hard to do business with, a situation which has also significantly contributed to the underdevelopment of infrastructure in the country. A number of organisational performance improvement models, such as EFQM, Baldrige and PROBE, can identify and improve organisational practice and reduce performance weaknesses. However, these approaches are lengthy and their implementation can thus jeopardise any improvement due to the lack of quick wins. Given the urgency of addressing Iraq’s infrastructure needs, this research focuses on developing an approach to help Iraqi decision makers create an organisational environment attractive to MNCs in a step-change fashion.To achieve this goal, four research stages were established. The first was conducting an extensive literature review; this identified six critical steps in creating an organisational environment attractive to MNCs. The second, or exploratory, stage applied these steps, assessing Iraqi organisational practices, comparing them to world-class standards and identifying key weaknesses and strengths. The third, development, stage focused on using the findings from the exploratory stage and the literature to develop and propose an approach to creating an organisational environment attractive to MNCs. This framework was validated in the fourth stage, using case studies. The key results of this research showed that an effective and quicker approach for decision makers of Iraqi government organisations to creating an organisational environment attractive for MNCs is by establishing separate spinout organisation(s) dedicated to working exclusively with MNCs throughout the lifecycle of infrastructure development programmes. Their successful implementation will pave the way for large-scale reform for government organisations in Iraq. However, such an approach is entirely dependent on achieving top management support and commitment to change. This research contributes to knowledge by providing an alternative approach to the existing improvement methods that can help government organisations similar to the ones in Iraq, overcome their performance weaknesses and create effective organisational environment in the short term

ANALISIS PENGARUH PENERAPAN STRUKTUR GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE TERHADAP KINERJA PERUSAHAAN PUBLIK DI INDONESIA

Komite audit mempunyai kemampuan untuk mengaitkan berbagai pihak yang ikut serta dalam proses pelaporan keuangan dan mengawasi pelaksanaan pemrosesan pembuatan laporan keuangan. Sehingga perumusan masalah yang diangkat dalam penelitian ini adalah: apakah terdapat perbedaan kinerja perusahaan publik sebelum dan sesudah penerapan good corporate governance di Indonesia. Bagaimana pengaruh penerapan tingkat good corporate governance terhadap kinerja perusahaan. Proses pemilihan sampel menghasilkan 130 perusahaan dengan periode penelitian tahun 1998 sampai dengan tahun 2005 (data laporan keuangan diperoleh di pusat referensi pasar modal sampai dengan September 2007). Hasilnya diperoleh 972 sampel pengamatan. Analisis diskriminan dipergunakan untuk mengelompokkan setiap objek ke dalam dua atau lebih kelompok berdasarkan pada kriteria variabel bebas. Hipotesis pertama tentang adanya perbedaan antara profitabilitas sebelum dan sesudah diterapkannya GCG berhasil ditolak. Penelitian ini tidak searah dengan penelitian sebelumnya yang dilakukan oleh penelitian Hamonangan dan Mas’ud 2006. Hipotesis kedua yang menyatakan terdapat perbedaan antara solvabilitas sebelum dan sesudah diterapkannya GCG tidak dapat menolak Ha. Penelitian ini searah dengan Daily dan Dalton (1994) yang menyimpulkan terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara komposisi direksi dan struktur kepemimpinan direksi tersebut dengan kemungkinan perusahaan mengalami kebangkrutan

Photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence studies of diatoms - nature’s own nano-porous silica structures.

Photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) data are presented for the silica frustules of some fresh water diatoms. The diatom frustules consist of a nano-porous silica structure that may possibly be exploited for optoelectronic or photonic applications. This work represents what we believe to be the first report of the CL and PL properties of this naturally occurring source of nano-porous silica.Australian and New Zealand Institutes of Physic