The possibilities and perils of critical performativity: Learning from four case studies

•Provides four case studies of engagement by a critical with practice.•Argues by engaging critical scholars have opportunities to transform organizational practice.•However engagement is often messy and complicated.•Therefore critical scholars need to learn to live with uncertainty and doubt.

SummaryDespite the regular calls for Critical Management Studies (CMS) scholars to actively intervene in organizational practice, there have been few published examples. This paper provides an illustrate example of intervention by offering four case studies which examine the tensions and contradictions of the academic at work in the world.Based on these examples it calls into question some of the assumptions of the recent performative turn by arguing that direct engagement in practice is complicated and messy. However, these challenges should not be prohibitive for engaged action. Rather, following Gibson-Graham (2006b), they provide an integral feature of direct engagement and transformation which requires a new sensibility for theorizing that enhances possibilities for action.