Besides increasing the relative importance of organizations and the business academy the globalization also brought to the forefront the corporate theatre and the spectacular strategies. The resulting picture is contradictory and it helps explain the more recent critique on the relevance of academic knowledge in strategic management. On the one hand, large corporations demand that managers/administrators undertake strategic functions through the use of academic knowledge. On the other hand, large corporations mobilize spectacular strategies and demand that managers/administrators play roles that challenge the hegemony of scientific management. Drawing upon the concept of social representation this article shows how and why scientific management became hegemonic and how and why dramaturgy can challenge it rather than creating a contradictory scenario for managers/administrators. We analyse three important theatrical traditions related to the world of masks - Topeng Pajegan, Commedia dell’Arte, and the art of clowns - to show how the relevance crisis in strategic management can be hampered.