Rosenberger et al.: Trend Study Switzerland 2022

Rosenberger et al.: Trend Study Switzerland 2022

Since 2018, the research project “Communication in the Digital Transformation”, designed as a trend study, has been conducted every two years by a ZHAW research team at the IAM Institute of Applied Media Sciences. It examines the role of communications in digital transformation, its state and its need for development. In 2022, 133 communications managers in German-speaking Switzerland were surveyed and twelve expert interviews were conducted.

The central component of the study is the framework, consisting of three levels and developed in 2018, which describes the role of corporate communications in the digital transformation. Here, the micro level deals with the digital transformation of the communications departments, the meso level with the entire organization, and the macro level with the market and society. The 2022 results show that drastic events (e.g. Covid-19, Ukraine war) change less the direction than the speed of digital transformation. In addition, the authors further develop the fields of action from the previous studies, resulting in twelve requirements for contemporary and future-oriented communication. These include, for example, agility, culture change, and technology understanding as key competencies for CCOs and AI-enabled applications and automations. The complete and detailed results can be accessed free of charge.