THE COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIOURAL DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN A MERGER: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY* FRE Â DE Â RIC LEROY Nantes School of Management BERNARD RAMANANTSOA School of Management, HEC ABSTRACT This paper addresses the links between cognitive and behavioural learning at both a theoretical and empirical level. An integrative model is developed which identi®es a number of conceptually distinct learning modes and which incorpo- rates the tacit aspect of knowledge. An empirical illustration of this model is provided in the form of a case study of a merger of two companies in the BSN- Danone Group. Mergers provide ®rms with opportunities for shared learning but this study also identi®es several barriers to learning. The managerial implications of an integrated approach to organizational learning are also discussed. INTRODUCTION Most of the literature dealing with organizational learning draws a distinction between organizational learning understood as behavioural change and organiza- tional learning understood as cognitive change. Indeed, this distinction is central to organizational learning studies: most writers de®ne `real' organizational learning in terms of cognitive change. Following Inkpen and Crossan (1995) this paper attempts to study the behavioural and cognitive dimensions of organiza- tional learning and to integrate the two. It therefore points to the rudiments of an integrative model according to which organizational learning is de®ned as a conjunction of the two. We also take account of the more or less tacit nature of the subjects of learning ± knowledge and know-how ± and integrate the notion of the transformation of knowledge advanced by Nonaka (1994). In this paper, we de®ne organizational learning as the collective phenomenon of the acquisition and development of cognitive and behavioural skills, knowledge and know-how, resulting in a more or less profound and durable modi®cation of the way organizations are managed (Koenig, 1994). The ®rst section of the paper provides a summary of the behaviourist and cognitive Journal of Management Studies 34:6 November 1997 0022-2380 # Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Address for reprints: Fre Âde Âric Leroy, Corporate Strategy Department, Nantes School of Management, 8 route de la Jonelie Á re, BP 31222, 44312 Nantes cedex 3, France.