The leader among us: Identifying career progression barriers between librarians and archivists

For many reasons, not every organizational member will have equal access to career progression or senior leadership positions. Barriers to advancement have been widely studied with demographic differences (e.g., gender, race) but little research has focused on deep-level, cognitive differences. Reasons for disproportionate advancement may be related to individual differences between groups, perceptual biases, or contextual factors. The present study investigated differences between two groups of information science professionals, one that readily advances to senior positions, and the other that does not. In a sample of 460 librarians and archivists, it was found that the two groups were largely similar on individual differences yet varied in their experiences at their organization. Both groups had overlapping personal values and similar levels of worry/concern about leading. However, archivists were significantly lower in engagement at work, leadership support/development, and affective motivation to lead. Recommendations for future research are discussed and it is suggested that organizations pay attention to imbalances in engagement and opportunities across units/specialties.