Grappling with the performative condition

What kind of an anthropological puzzle does the performativity of strategy constitute? Rather than considering performativity as an operational concept or situating the discussion within the limits of strategy scholarship, this short essay asks how an emphasis on the performative can be regarded as a cultural condition, that is, as a ductile though crucial quality of the way in which things are made sense of in our present cultural setup. Suggesting seemingly extraneous associations between ideals of strategic management and business education, on the one hand, and archetypes of experimental performance and political will, on the other, the essay locates the ultimate interpretive category of this performative condition in the act of decision, and offers a critique of its anthropological limits.