Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis examines the role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) among organizations dealing with security issues, such as the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO. This study further analyzes the OSCE commitments in the fields of human rights, democracy, rule of law, and national minorities. This analysis is performed in order to promote the OSCE to a broader public. The thesis further analyzes and describes the origins of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and its development since 1975, when the Helsinki Final Act was signed by the Heads of State or Government of all participating States. The development of the international situation in Europe, the end of Cold War, and escalation of violence, especially in South Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia, caused fundamental changes in the European, and subsequently, the world security environment. The CSCE identified and responded to this new situation, resulting in a dramatic growth of its own role in shaping a common security area. Consequently, the CSCE changed its name to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. However, some critics think that OSCE is a "dead" organization, lacking tangible results and the necessary "teeth." It is necessary to review the main ideas why the CSCE was established and to properly identify the role of the OSCE in the European Security Architecture. Therefore, the main part of the thesis focuses on the European Security Architecture, the OSCE itself, and the OSCE missions, three of which are detailed and evaluated as case studies. / Lieutenant Colonel, Czech Republic Army

The research made in the current master thesis uses theoretical framework from the area of project management, voluntary labor turnover and performance appraisal. Prior research based on existing literary sources allows assuming that the following factors, such as job alternatives, knowledge intensity and nature of work have specific relevance for the emergence of voluntary labor turnover in project-based organizations. Employees of the case study company-AGR Field Operations´ Maintenance Engineering department were interviewed and surveyed in order to determine the relevance of those factors on the example of a concrete project-based organization. The obtained results indicate that the nature of work is more significantly related to the emergence of the voluntary labor turnover in the given case study department. Whereas availability of more job alternatives due to being close to the client or knowledge intensity factor of becoming more generalist do not have the same influence. During the course of the research it was discovered that the department uses outcome-based type of performance appraisal which is proved to be unsuitable in the given organizational settings. To that matter there were provided further suggestions in the field of performance appraisal. The current research will attempt to identify specific factors contributing to the emergence of the voluntary labor turnover specifically for project-based organizations. As well as it will attempt to give suggestions for improvement of the concrete case study department´s performance appraisal tools and thus supplement turnover reduction actions already put in place by the department management.

Product Development Processes have achieved a state of some maturity in recent years, but have focused primarily on structuring technical activities from the initiation of development to launch. We advocate major advances on three fronts; first, implementing an end-to-end process from the front end through field operations, second, integrating business considerations much better into the end-to-end process, and third, incorporating a performance improvement closed loop into the process. We call the resulting process a Product Development Business Process. Three initial applications are summarized. / Improving product development processes along three key vectors leads to greatly improved business performance. / Center for Innovation in Product Development

With significant advances in wired and wireless technologies and also increased shrinking in the size of VLSI circuits, many devices have become very large because they need to contain several large units. This large number of gates and in turn large number of transistors causes the devices to be more prone to faults. These faults specially in sensitive and critical applications may cause serious failures and hence should be avoided. On the other hand, some critical applications such as cryptosystems may also be prone to deliberately injected faults by malicious attackers. Some of these faults can produce erroneous results that can reveal some important secret information of the cryptosystems. Furthermore, yield factor improvement is always an important issue in VLSI design and fabrication processes. Digital systems such as cryptosystems and digital signal processors usually contain finite field operations. Therefore, error detection and correction of such operations have become an important issue recently. In most of the work reported so far, error detection and correction are applied using redundancies in space (hardware), time, and/or information (coding theory). In this work, schemes based on these redundancies are presented to detect errors in important finite field arithmetic operations resulting from hardware faults. Finite fields are used in a number of practical cryptosystems and channel encoders/decoders. The schemes presented here can detect errors in arithmetic operations of finite fields represented in different bases, including polynomial, dual and/or normal basis, and implemented in various architectures, including bit-serial, bit-parallel and/or systolic arrays.

With significant advances in wired and wireless technologies and also increased shrinking in the size of VLSI circuits, many devices have become very large because they need to contain several large units. This large number of gates and in turn large number of transistors causes the devices to be more prone to faults. These faults specially in sensitive and critical applications may cause serious failures and hence should be avoided. On the other hand, some critical applications such as cryptosystems may also be prone to deliberately injected faults by malicious attackers. Some of these faults can produce erroneous results that can reveal some important secret information of the cryptosystems. Furthermore, yield factor improvement is always an important issue in VLSI design and fabrication processes. Digital systems such as cryptosystems and digital signal processors usually contain finite field operations. Therefore, error detection and correction of such operations have become an important issue recently. In most of the work reported so far, error detection and correction are applied using redundancies in space (hardware), time, and/or information (coding theory). In this work, schemes based on these redundancies are presented to detect errors in important finite field arithmetic operations resulting from hardware faults. Finite fields are used in a number of practical cryptosystems and channel encoders/decoders. The schemes presented here can detect errors in arithmetic operations of finite fields represented in different bases, including polynomial, dual and/or normal basis, and implemented in various architectures, including bit-serial, bit-parallel and/or systolic arrays.

Visibility refers to availability of information in real-time to requiring actors so that strategy and operations can be monitored, controlled and changed. A symptom of lack of visibility in inventory management is when information in IT systems does not accurately match what is present in the physical inventory. While there are studies in the area of scientific literature documenting reasons for inventory inaccuracy, a literature gap exists for inventory accuracy in relation to service field operations. This study's objective is therefore to examine what reasons are causing lack of inventory visibility in service field operations and which affected KPI are the most impacted by this lack. The study was designed as a case study at an industrial tools and equipment manufacturer, featuring observations and interviews. A visibility assessment approach to extract affected KPI was also applied. The results found that reasons causing lack in service field operations stem from how company IT systems are designed and in how accurately information is entered by employees in said IT system. It further found that a service technicians' years of service influences the inventory accuracy of their van inventory. Unclearly defined areas of responsibility and accountability were further found to contribute to lack of inventory visibility. The most affected KPI impacted were found to be Inventory in % of COGS and Provision in % of inventory, the reasons being that a lack of visibility leads to higher inventory levels and an increase in provisions. / Synlighet i en lagernivåkontext syftar till att information skall finnas tillgänglig för berörda aktörer i realtid så att strategier och operationer kan övervakas, kontrolleras och förändras. Ett symptom på synlighetsbrist i lagernivåer är när information i IT-system inte matchar med vad som finns fysiskt tillgängligt i lagret. Vetenskapliga studier har dokumenterat olika anledningar till felaktigheter i lagerinformation, dock existerar ett litteraturgap gällande hur felaktigheter i lagerinformation uppstår i relation till servicefältverksamheter. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka vilka skäl som orsakar brist på lagersynlighet i servicefältverksamheter och vilka KPI som påverkas mest av denna brist. Studien utformades som en fallstudie hos ett industriföretag. Observationer och intervjuer utfördes, dessutom tillämpades en synbarhetsbedömningsmetod för att extrahera påverkade KPI. Resultatet av studien visar att orsaker som vållar brist i servicefältverksamheter orsakas av hur företagets IT-system är utformade och från hur noggrant information bokförs av anställda i nämnda IT-system. Studien fann även att en serviceteknikers år i tjänst påverkar graden av felaktigheter dennes tjänstefordons lagernivåer. Oklart definierade ansvarsområden och ansvarsskyldighet upptäcktes vidare bidra till bristande synlighet i lagernivåer. De mest drabbade KPI konstaterades vara Inventory in % of COGS och Provision in % of inventory, orsakerna till detta är att synlighetsbrister leder till högre lagernivåer och en ökad volym avsättningar.

This study described the operation and organization of the United States Army's Second Armored Division's Public Affairs Office, with emphasis on the differences between garrison and field operations. The study found that the function of the division, public affairs office is to keep both the internal and external public(s) of the division informed concerning the activities of the division. The office is organized into three branches: command information, public information, and administration. During garrison operations, all members of the office operate from a building at Fort Hood, Texas. During field operations, office personnel organize into teams in order to provide information to all public(s), internal and external.