Yes / In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of ‘critical performativity’, a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between CMS researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational performativity authors, such as Austin and Butler, in ways that nullify their political potential, and ignores a range of other influential theories of performativity. It also overlooks the materiality of performativity. We review these limitations and then use three illustrations to sketch out a possible alternative conceptualization of performativity. This alternative approach, which builds on Butler’s and Callon’s work on performativity, recognises that performativity is about the constitution of subjects, is an inherently material and discursive construct, and happens through the political engineering of sociomaterial agencements. We argue that such an approach – a political theory of organizational performativity – is more likely to deliver on both theoretical and practical fronts than the concept of critical performativity.

L'art a été proposé comme réponse aux critiques de la Management Education dont les activités se sont académisées et où les approches d'inspiration scientifique dominent. Ma thèse constate l'homogénéité de la littérature spécialisée qui tend à se focaliser sur les apports des caractéristiques « romantiques » de l'art – où il est pris comme l'opposé théorique de la gestion. Avec une perspective critique, ma thèse s'appuie sur l'étude longitudinale, qualitative, inductive d'un cas unique pour tenter de déterminer si l'art, employé en tant que pédagogie, éloigne du localement dominant. L'analyse indique qu'il s'agit d'une expérience d’une pratique hybride, entre art et gestion, qui peut résonner avec les piliers de la Management Education. L'art éloigne alors de l’académisme, mais l’on reste dans le domaine de l’activité organisée qui peut être compatible avec les valeurs managériales actuelles. Il apporte une expérience du pratique, pas uniquement les caractéristiques romantiques. Il peut agir plutôt sur les moyens que sur les fins, pour offrir un retour vers un fondement pratique source de la Management Education avant son académisation progressive. / Art has been put forward in response to the critiques of Management Education whose activities have become quite academized and where scientifically inspired approaches dominate. In my thesis, I note the homogeneity of the specialized literature which is quite focused on what the “romantic” characteristics of art can bring – art is there taken as the theoretical opposite of management. With a critical perspective, my thesis builds on a longitudinal, qualitative, inductive study of a single case to try to determine if art, used as a teaching method, creates distance with what locally dominates. The analysis indicates it is an experience of a hybrid practice, between art and management, which can resonate with the pillars of Management Education. Art entails less academism, but one remains in the domain of an organized activity that can be compatible with the current managerial values. It brings an experience of the practical, not only the romantic characteristics. It can have an effect on the means more than on the ends, so as to offer a return to a practical foundation which has been the source of Management Education before its progressive academization.