Popularity is growing for flipped classroom instruction, which replaces lectures with out-of-class delivery of streaming video, reading materials, online chats, and other modalities. Face-to-face class time is spent on instructor-student and student-student interaction, including small group problem solving and discussion. Classroom flipping has its advocates and critics. Because of the theoretical and applied aspects of business and professional communication instruction, courses in the discipline seem ideally suited to flipped instruction. This research reports on perceptions from instructors who have employed the instructional model, summarizes the insights gained, identifies best practices, and makes recommendations for future research and application.

Employees often perceive periods of change—no matter how warranted or beneficial—as crises, exhibiting both cognitive and emotional reactions including feelings of insecurity and uncertainty, even fear, chaos, stress, betrayal, grief, and anger. Management must have a clear strategy for communicating with employees through change, as employee expectations for open and honest communication are increased in times of shift and uncertainty. Open, honest, and regular communication is essential to keeping employees motivated and productive. Benefits of effective communication in times of change include higher employee satisfaction and engagement, lower turnover, and stronger long-term commitment. Solid internal relationships also strengthen ethics-related outcomes such as fraud reduction and reputation management.

Successful communication between persons within an organization is based on a foundation of mutual trust. Trust is explored through psychological/sociological avenues and finally through its implications for organizations. An atmosphere of trust can eliminate or minimize commonly prevailing communication barriers. Such barriers are classified as context-related (related to the communication environment or setting) and content-related (related to the message itself or the participants). Trust is a critical factor in overcoming communication barriers of both types. Organizational trust can be developed and improved by applying identified strategies. Individual relationships as well as organizational performance benefit from the establishment and maintenance of a trust atmosphere.