This document examines the current state of workplace learning within the context of the changing workplace of the late 20th century. The document begins with an overview of the evolution of employer-dominated training from Taylorism to the rise of human resource development during the late 1970s and 1980s. The development of the concepts of organizational learning and learning organizations is examined, and the differences between traditional training and training in learning organizations are highlighted. Also discussed are the extent of workplace organization in the United States, the current scope of private sector training and organizational learning, and the relationship between the purpose and implementation of training. The need for worker-centered learning is explained, and the uneasy ties between worker's education and adult education are explored. Examples of specific training initiatives of organized labor in the auto industry and elsewhere are used to consider the question of whether labor's participation in the design and delivery of workplace learning changes its scope and nature. The need for solid quantitative and qualitative research to determine whether organizational learning is compatible with the competitive demands of global free enterprise and whether worker-centered learning is a viable alternative to organizational learning is emphasized. (Contains 143 references.) (MN)