The use of flipped instructional methods have become commonplace in business schools, despite a mix of potential benefits and pitfalls. To explore why flipped classes may have both benefits and pitfalls, we applied psychological contract theory and a person-situation fit perspective. We found undergraduate organisational behaviour students who expected traditional in-person lecture-based instruction, yet received flipped instruction (indicative of contract violation) were less satisfied and less intent on taking a flipped class later, yet they showed more in-class effort than students who expected and received traditional instruction. Moreover, autonomously motivated students were more intent on taking a flipped class in the future (indicative of a better fit), and satisfaction mediated this relationship. Autonomous motivation also predicted outside-of-class effort and self-regulated learning strategies. Flipped classes may benefit autonomously motivated students who can self-select such classes, while less autonomously motivated students or those with violated psychological contracts may experience pitfalls.