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Taiwan has been one of the economic success stories of East Asia. It has moved from a position of backwardness to being at the forefront of technological development in a number of key sectors such as computing. It has progessed from being a sub‐contractor to being a major regional operations centre. Once Taiwan was associated with goods that were cheap but had low quality. Now it has established a number of brand names that are regarded globally as being of the highest quality.

Analyses some of the hidden barriers in exporting to Japan. It looks at Japanese industrial organisation and the role of the large corporations in controlling import and distribution outlets. The Japanese wholesale and distribution system is much larger than would be the case in Europe or North America. There are also differences in patterns of consumer behaviour in Japan compared to Europe. Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry also plays a more active role in the business environment. Also examines the problems involved with negotiating with the Japanese. It looks at a number of the obvious sources of confusion and misunderstanding between Japanese and Westerners during the negotiation process.

In his autobiography, Chen Shui-bian (1999, p. 40) condemned the Koumintang's (KMT's) corruption and praised the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for being free from money politics and corruption. The DPP fought the 1992 Legislative Yuan election campaign effectively on an anticorruption platform and used the same strategy in subsequent elections. If Chen Shui-bian had criticized the KMT for its involvement with “black gold” politics and had won the 2000 presidential election on his anticorruption platform, why was he and his family found guilty of corruption after his second term of office? The short answer is that even though he had promised to curb corruption, President Chen himself had succumbed to corruption after assuming office. In June 2002, Keesing's Contemporary Archives cited a poll in Taiwan that indicated that more respondents had perceived the DPP to be more corrupt than the KMT (Copper, 2006, p. 14).

This article examines the cases of Germany and Japan where education and training is orientated towards producing workers who can consistently deliver high standards of quality control in manufacturing industry. It begins by examining why unemployment is such a serious problem for Europe and then moves on to analyse the significance of training for quality. The discussion contains a case study on Germany. It considers the dilemma between reducing the problem of too much regulation while ensuring that standards remain to ensure high quality training. A second case study looks at Japan and the question of training for quality there.

Although some architects have found spatial order and proportion strategy effective in designing the environment for autistic children, it is not clear what spatial ratios are preferred for autistic people. Therefore, this study aims to find the desired ratio among autistic and non-autistic children.

The scale model questionnaire was chosen to determine the difference in the ratio preferences for autistic and non-autistic children, whereas two access types between the space zones are also considered. The questionnaire was administered to 50 autistic children, with a half-and-half distribution of moderate and mild autism groups, while males are twofold. It was also administered to 50 non-autistic children, approximately equal in terms of gender division. The scale model was designed in the form of a dollhouse to be played with a doll in 6 varied rooms categorized by 3 different ratios (1:1, golden ratio, 1.6:1 and 5:2) and 2 access types (linear and radial access) to measure how many times each room was selected by each group to run numerical analysis.

It was shown that, although the golden ratio has been previously considered in space design for autistic children, they appealed to the ratio of 2:5 with high frequency. While there is a significant difference between the spatial ratios preferred by autistic and non-autistic children choosing the golden ratio, the same type of space access system is preferred by both groups in their results.

Despite the prevalent use of the golden ratio in design for autism design, this research shaped an empirical study for autistic users concluding a different perspective in design for autism.

These four studies are clear testimony to the ‘rediscovery’ of the victims of crime that has occurred in the last two decades, following a long period of neglect by academics, practitioners, penal reformers and governments. Although the nominal origins of this revival of interest may be traced back to the somewhat earlier development of ‘victimology’ among a handful of European and North American criminologists investigating the contribution of victims to ‘their’ crimes, the major impetus came with the rapid growth of crime victimisation surveys in the 1970s. From the outset, these surveys revealed a huge pool of hidden victimisation, and indicated some of the reasons why victims chose not to report the crimes to the police. They subsequently began to focus on other aspects of the impact of crime, such as the extent of the fear of crime amongst members of the public, and the effects of crimes upon those who had been victimised. The first national British Crime Survey (BCS) did not take place until 1982 (with a second survey in 1984 and another planned for 1988), and incorporated comparative questions on these more qualitative aspects of victimisation. Data from the British Crime Surveys have been made available by the Home Office to other researchers and was drawn upon by Maguire and Corbett and by Mawby and Gill in their important reviews of the work of victims support schemes in Britain.

Paramedics' work environment is constantly changing and unpredictable. Controlling environmental risks is difficult for the HR department and requires support of external systems such as unions and policymakers. Acknowledging environmental complexity, and the interaction of external systems, this study examines how the HRM system manages and responds to violence against paramedics.

Data were collected from three Australian state ambulance services. Detailed accounts from 72 semi-structured interviews are supplemented by 1,216 phone surveys demonstrating the prevalence of assault.

Reporting very high levels of assault against paramedics from the survey data, the authors discuss situational risk factors identified by interviewees in the immediate physical environment and broader social context. The authors detail HRM practices adopted by each case and identify how gaps in the HRM system are addressed by other external, industry-level and state/federal-level systems in a multi-layer response to assault against paramedics.

Identification of individual and situational risk factors and consequences for paramedics enables more targeted prevention, intervention and response. Young and less experienced paramedics are perceived to be at greater risk of assault. Importance of HRM practices particularly de-escalation training is highlighted. Gaps in HRM system require external input, particularly via law enforcement and public education.

This study adopts a holistic and contextualised perspective of HRM to improve understanding of violence against paramedics at work. Combining open systems and multi-stakeholder approaches, the authors adapt Beer et al.'s (1984) seminal Harvard Model of HRM. The authors propose a conceptual map which illustrates relationships between situational risks, key systems, HRM practices and outcomes.

Change is a feature of the liberal democracies. Despite its ubiquitous nature, however, one key factor in these democracies, the police, has been noted for its conservatism. This bastion of traditionalism, this upholder of the law of the land, has changed little in structure or purpose over the first half of this century but it has not been the case during the latter half. Change now appears to be manifesting itself in new organisational structures and forms; modifications to role and focus; and, in accommodating revised views on the need for agencies whose composition reflects gender equity and minority representation, as authorities struggle to satisfy the array of demands on contemporary police services. This paper speculates as to what may have prompted change to the police, examines what it considers to be some of the main areas of change, and then postulates the consequences for police and policing.

In this introduction chapter, the authors first offer a brief overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the notion of wellbeing and flourishing from the positive organizational scholarship literature. The authors, then, provide an overview of the chapters in this handbook, guiding the readers through key aspects that each chapter contributes to the handbook’s collective perspective of efforts, initiatives, and programs that promote wellbeing in the higher education settings.