We advance a “double performativity” is expected from Management Education. Building on the foundations of performativity, we argue this institution’s performativity can only occur through its agents – who we qualify as per-formateurs – using successful performatives. From there, we explain how management educators are faced with a “performativity dilemma”, i.e. the extent to which management educators want to, and are legitimate to, shape management students through management theories and discourses; we in particular focus on management educators who are interested in Critical Management Education (CME). Through a critical and French sociology framework, we question whether, as many critical management educators believe, critical ideas can be shared through “critical performativity”. In this empirical qualitative paper based on an artistic experiment, we determine whether or not art can help put critical performativity to work in the Management Education context. We use an ethnographic posture both in the academic world and during the workshop, combined with interviews.
