Great surprise for Fabian Saxinger, M.A.: His master's thesis on “Digital Leadership in Corporate Communication” was awarded the BdKom Talent Award 2024 by a top-class jury at the gala event of the Kommunikationskongress 2024 at Admiralspalast Berlin, attended by almost 1,000 participants. The prize for the best thesis in the discipline in Germany is endowed with EUR 2,000. The prize also includes the publication of the study as a book.
The thesis (supervisor: Professor Ansgar Zerfass; second reviewer: Professor Christof Ehrhart) focuses on the role of communication leaders as initiators and motivators in the introduction of digital innovations. Although many digital and AI-supported tools for professional communication work have been available for some time, practice is changing only slowly. This is often due to to adverse structures in organizations or to the fact that employees in communication teams, who are already working to capacity in their day-to-day business, are not enthusiastic about new technologies. This is where leaders are called upon to lead the way and shape change.
On the one hand, the award-winning thesis offers a comprehensive and knowledgeable overview of the international debate on the digital transformation of the communication function and the tasks of leaders in digital transformation. On the other hand, it develops a framework for digital leadership specifically for communication departments. The role of digital leadership (consisting of vision, mindset and skillset) including leadership communication in the implementation of CommTech and AI is described on the basis of action patterns and role elements. This framework has been evaluated in three focus groups with communication managers from large German companies who have concrete experience with such transformation projects. This provides a wealth of inspiration for theory and practice.
Fabian Saxinger successfully completed his Master's degree in Communication Management at Leipzig University in spring 2024. Since then, he has been working as a Consultant Corporate & Financial Communications at the international consulting firm FT Consulting in Frankfurt am Main. During his studies, he was involved in several research projects and co-authored publications. Fabian Saxinger acted as spokesperson of the Masterclass 2021 in Leipzig, deputy chairman of the local student and alumni association LPRS e.V. and he has been deputy chairman of the Friends of Communication Science at the University of Passau since 2019.
The BdKom Award is already the third award for theses on communication management by junior researchers from Leipzig this year. Caroline Siegel (international Grunig & Grunig Thesis Award 2024) and Dr. Jens Hagelstein (DPRG Dissertation Award 2023/24) were also awarded.