How work is organised is a critical component of firms’ learning process. Because of that, the relationship between firms’ work organisation and their innovative effort is endogenous in nature and, in turn, causal effects are hardly identifiable. This paper aims to contribute by analysing the effects of organisational work practices oriented toward knowledge sharing and innovative efforts in Uruguayan firms between 2009 and 2015. Our research design allows us to test both the endogenous relationship and the potential causal effects, using econometric panel data techniques and instrumental variables. The results corroborate the endogenous relationship between these variables. Moreover, a positive and significant effect of communication practices on the innovative effort is identified in low-tech manufacturing firms but not in high-tech firms. This result offers valuable implications for public policy and industrial practices in developing countries since it reflects the main features of an innovation pattern that mostly relies on modernisation strategies rather than on high-tech innovations based on R&D.