Diving deeper into shared meaning-making: Exploring the zones of engagement within a single case study

•This study used interviews and focus groups (n = 77) to examine the zones of engagement within a government contractor.•The findings demonstrate how the conceptual model develops employee-centric engagement tactics rooted in communication.•The study cautions an overuse of discretionary effort, highlighting the potential dark side of engagement.•In using the zones of engagement, employees become strategic partners in the meaning-making of employee engagement.•This co-creational approach has been missing from much of the current literature on employee engagement. The purpose of this research is to use a case study method to investigate how employees within a specific context experience and make-meaning of Lemon and Palenchar’s (2018) zones of engagement. This is in response to the authors research call to use case study methods, specifically here interviews and focus groups (n = 77), to see how the zones of engagement are operating in a bound context, which in this case is a government contractor. The findings demonstrate the value of using the zones of engagement conceptual model to develop employee-centric engagement tactics rooted in both formal and dialogic communication. In addition, the study cautions an overuse of encouraging discretionary effort, highlighting the potential dark side of engagement. In taking a non-functionalist approach to understand government contractor employee experiences, the findings illustrate the meaning that derives from shared experiences and offer insight into a particular context beneficial to internal communication practitioners.