Why do numerous organisational initiatives and projects often fail despite having a seemingly well-designed internal communication plan?

I believe the key factor is culture, which is often undervalued in both research and practice.

Across Africa, organisations are adopting digital transformation, restructuring, policy reform, and innovative work methods. Employee resistance is often a major obstacle to successful change. However, the issue is not always poor internal communication; rather, organisations often struggle to communicate in ways that align with their employees' cultural contexts.

This observation is the foundation of the ACCRA Framework for Internal Communication and Change Management, which I present in my forthcoming book, Communicating Change in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan).

The framework begins with a simple proposition: effective internal communication must start with culture.

Employees do not interpret organisational messages in isolation. They interpret them through their beliefs, lived experiences, family responsibilities, respect for authority, religious values, and communal relationships. These factors determine whether they trust leaders, accept change, or resist it.

That is why internal communication cannot simply transmit information. It must help employees make sense of change within their own cultural context.

The ACCRA Framework invites leaders to ask different questions before launching any change initiative:

• What cultural values will shape how employees interpret this change?
• Who are the trusted voices within the organisation?
• Which organisational traditions should be acknowledged rather than ignored?
• How can internal communication build trust before it asks employees to change?

These questions move internal communication from information sharing to meaning-making. And that shift changes everything.

Figure 1. The ACCRA Framework: Awareness Creation, Community Legitimacy, Cultural Translation, Relational Reinforcement, Adoption Alignment (Tandoh, Communicating Change in Africa)

THE ACCRA FRAMEWORK: Five Dimensions

A	Awareness Creation	Cultural literacy: understanding the values employees bring before crafting any message.
C	Community Legitimacy	Trust-building through respected community voices and inclusive consultation.
C	Cultural Translation	Meaning-making: expressing change in language and metaphor employees genuinely understand.
R	Relational Reinforcement	Sustained dialogue that maintains trust and visibility throughout the change process.
A	Adoption Alignment	Embedding change permanently by aligning systems, incentives, and habits.

Three types of resistance, three different responses

The framework also recognises that employee resistance is not uniform. During organisational change, employees generally fall into three broad groups.

Type	Root Cause	Internal Communication Response Required
Unknowing	Lack of information	Provide clear, consistent, timely information in accessible language.
Unwilling	Trust deficit or perceived unfairness	Rebuild trust through credible leadership, honest dialogue, and demonstrated fairness.
Unable	Skill, confidence, or support gap	Provide targeted training, mentoring, resources, and genuine organisational support.

Diagnosing the source of resistance must come before designing the communication strategy. A response designed for the unknowing will not reach the unwilling. A response designed for the unwilling will not help the unable.

Africa's opportunity in global scholarship

As internal communication continues to evolve as a strategic management function, I believe Africa's contribution cannot stop at applying theories built elsewhere. We have the scholarship, the case studies, and the lived organisational experience to originate our own frameworks built for Africa, by Africa.

Our organisational cultures, leadership traditions, communal values, and workplace experiences provide the foundation for The ACCRA Framework, which is intended to contribute valuable insights that can truly enhance global scholarship. and this is my contribution to Africanising our frameworks and models.

It is an invitation to frameworknal communication from an African perspective, one where culture is recognised not as background noise, but as the foundation on which meaningful communication and sustainable organisational change must be built.

I look forward to engaging with colleagues, researchers, and practitioners to discuss how African perspectives can strengthen the future of internal communication.

Dr Ike Tandoh is a Senior Lecturer and Dean of Students at UniMAC-IJ, Accra, Ghana, and the Founder/CEO of 1PR Communications Group. His forthcoming book, Communicating Change in Africa, is under consideration for publication in the Palgrave Studies of Sustainable Business in Africa series.

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