Building on a broad concept of workplace wellbeing, this paper suggests a cohesive framework for the research and practice of workplace learning and development of human resources and proposes that synergies between these fields should be better acknowledged. There are three major concerns behind the proposition: a taken-for-granted approach to adult learning, the fragmented state of research and theory on workplace learning and development of human resources, and the current relationship between research, policy and practice in these fields. The paper is structured into three parts. The first part describes the proposed integrative framework. The discussion in the second and third parts builds argumentation for a need for a more holistic thinking about learning and working life development. The second part presents three existing lines of theorizing on learning and various developments in the workplace, and exemplifies how the mainstream studies have built on only two of these. The third part describes the third, holistic approach, and critically discusses the promise and prospects of this line of theorizing. Here the paper draws also from the critical discussion emerging particularly from within literature on human resource development (HRD). One of the main conclusions of the paper is that methodology seems to determine the development of theory, rather than the other way around. Related to this, the efforts to promote multidisciplinary research have so far not produced results in line with expectations. Another conclusion is that the academia itself, with its structures, policies and traditions contribute to an increasingly fragmented picture of "reality" in regards to the topic in question, and forms a major obstacle in developing more coherent thinking, transparency and open communication across the fields of studies and disciplines. (Contains 1 figure.) [This article is based on a paper presented at the Annual Conference on HRD Research and Practice across Europe (5th, Limerick, Ireland, May 25-26, 2004).]