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This study aims at analyzing the features of knowledge flow and the role-specific nodes in knowledge networks among individuals and business units of six organizations in different industries, and suggesting prescriptions to prevent the organizational knowledge sclerosis.

This research conducts multiple case studies on the organizational knowledge paths of six companies in the multiple industries through social network analysis (SNA) tool developed by the authors of this paper.

This study provides four major findings which shed a new light on how to comprehend the features of knowledge flow and the role-specific nodes in knowledge networks in organizations: the within-business unit knowledge flows are more dominant over the inter-business units knowledge flow; the downward knowledge flows are dominant over the horizontal and upward knowledge flows in the management levels; distributions of knowledge owners and providers are like L-shape and the gap between knowledge owing and providing expands as the management levels go up; and the top 20 percent people in an organization dominate over a large portion of the knowledge brokerage activities.

Cultural difference issue might arise because data collection was limited to Korean organizations. Therefore, the findings from this study needs to be cautiously interpreted considering the cultural difference/deeper understanding of the organizational knowledge paths through social network lens can make it possible for more context-specific KM strategies (e.g. suitable for a specific functional unit, management level, or industry type) to be identified and implemented.

Managers can have a solid grasp about knowledge flows and knowledge node roles in their organization through social network analysis in order to facilitate the knowledge transfer and eliminate the knowledge link lapse in organizations.

This study could be a stepping stone for further empirical research since it expanded the level of organizational knowledge network analysis from individual and team to inter-unit and inter-management level through the block modeling analysis of knowledge network.

The purpose of this paper is to validate the usefulness of resource description and access (RDA) from user perspectives by implementing an RDA-based bibliographic retrieval system, and comparing it against two retrieval systems.

Surveys and interviews were conducted to gather responses from 20 subjects who used the systems. Usability was measured according to the following metrics: search usefulness from search process and results; search efficiency, measured in time and the number of steps involved; general satisfaction for search results and process, and for information need; satisfaction for search functionalities, with five sub-measures (usability of functions of search tool, appropriateness of search results, usability of additional information, usability of associative relations, and appropriateness of search categories); and system convenience in terms of understandability and ease.

The survey results indicate that all but the satisfaction for appropriateness of search categories showed significant differences between the systems. The interviews show that the RDA system received from the subjects a more positive evaluation compared to the counterpart systems, in search usefulness, search efficiency, general search satisfaction, satisfaction for search functionalities.

Though a few organizations such as the Library of Congress in the USA have implemented RDA, no such endeavors have been undertaken in the context of Korean bibliography, and especially for the systematic validation of usability of such a system from user perspectives.

This is the first published study that validates the usefulness perceived by users of RDA in the context of Korean bibliography.