This chapter is an introduction to this edited collection (and to the chapters which follow). It provides an overview of the centrality of workforce to health and care systems. Currently, the centrality stems from the workforce crisis pertaining to the shortage of staff (in numbers, distribution, etc.) and to the quality of work (in terms of changing roles, burnout and discrimination). This opening chapter is organised in two main sections. The first section summarises the parameters of the key contemporary themes as they relate to workforce in health and care organisations. The thematic descriptions include occupations and professions; management and leadership; incentives, pay and performance; working conditions and the work-life balance and neglected or missing themes (practising staff, research gaps vis-à-vis clinical research, workforce diversity). The second gives a background to the book in terms of its origins in the Organisational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) conference in 2022 and the descriptions of the chapters in the collection. The chapter concludes with a short summary of the chapters which follow.