Aiming at a conceptual introduction to this volume, this chapter opens by illustrating the importance of informal learning at work as a topic for practitioners and researchers alike. By taking a historical perspective, the first section describes how changes in society have affected structures and processes in organisations, and how these changes have brought human resource development on the organisational agenda. In the second section, theoretical foundations for understanding and researching informal learning at work are presented and integrated. Using this integrated theoretical perspective on informal learning, the third section then provides an operational definition of informal learning at work as basis for the chapters of this volume. Based on all these theoretical considerations, the research agenda of this volume and the content of the different chapters are presented in the final section of this chapter.
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