Exploring Employee Perceptions Of Internal Communication And Its Influence On Advocacy Intentions: A Study Of The Ghana Meteorological Agency

Abstract

This study explores how employees of the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) perceive internal communication practices and how these perceptions influence their willingness to advocate for the organisation. Despite growing recognition of internal communication as a driver of employee engagement and advocacy, research in African public sector contexts remains limited. Using a qualitative interpretive approach grounded in Excellence Theory, the study employed semi-structured interviews with ten employees at GMet headquarters to examine their lived experiences of organisational communication. Thematic analysis revealed that employees identified significant challenges in the timeliness, clarity, and accessibility of internal messages, often hampered by excessive technical jargon and mismatched communication channels. While recent improvements such as quarterly staff durbars, newsletters, and WhatsApp groups were acknowledged, implementation remained uneven across departments. The findings indicate that employee advocacy is both identity-driven and conditional: many staff expressed professional commitment to speak positively about the agency regardless of communication shortcomings, yet others emphasised that their confidence to advocate depended on receiving complete, accurate, and timely information. Trust, transparency, participative feedback mechanisms, and approachable leadership emerged as critical enablers of advocacy, while fear of reprisal and lack of safe feedback channels inhibited open engagement. The study concludes that effective internal communication in public institutions requires not only functional improvements in message delivery but also relational and structural interventions that foster trust, inclusion, and psychological safety. Recommendations include enhancing message clarity, aligning channels with content, strengthening feedback systems, and promoting transparent leadership practices to support sustained employee advocacy.