Discussions of public service motivation tend to emphasize the idealistic side of civil servants, stressing how they are led by self-sacrifice and a commitment to the public good. This article adopts a different perspective by linking the personality trait of narcissism to public service motivation. This notion was tested through a survey among employees of three public organizations. The statistical analysis shows that personalities with narcissistic elements tend to be more attracted to the world of policy and politics. This is accompanied by diminished feelings of compassion. Although the significance of this correlation should not be overstated, it does show that the link between public service motivation and commitment to the public interest is more complex than is sometimes suggested. Given the growth of narcissistic tendencies in contemporary society, it may be effective to take account of them in recruiting and managing civil service personnel.

Public value management encourages public organizations to move beyond existing frameworks and create value in flexible collaboration with societal partners. However, this approach creates problems for the accountability processes, because reports to politicians are often still directed at quantitative goals and rigid frameworks. This creates uncertainty and disagreement around the definition of value, the legitimacy of the new governance styles and the complexity of the new collaborations. This article describes the experiences of a large Dutch municipality where we conducted an experiment with an innovative accountability process for public value creation in the public health domain. Political administrators, council members, civil servants and societal partners have jointly assessed, through an interactive Public Value Table meeting format, what value their combined efforts in complex societal challenges have created. This experiment gives insight in the growing pains of public value creation, but also shows some possible solutions to address these tensions.