This article analyzes whether and to what extent the policy environment of civil servants has an
impact on their level of Public Service Motivation (PSM). It hypothesizes that public employees
working in different policy domains and stages of the policy cycle are diversely motivated by four
PSM orientations (Compassion, Commitment to the public interest, Self-sacrifice and Attraction to
politics). The empirical results are based on a survey of 6885 Swiss civil servants. They show that
those in charge of Welfare State policies are inclined to have higher levels of 'Compassion', whereas
those performing core state functions report lower levels. Furthermore, employees whose main
tasks are related to policy formulation display high levels of the 'Attraction to politics' dimension
of PSM. This study questions the generalization of previous findings on PSM that are based on
heterogeneous survey populations.