Try the following in your view to check the output from each. The first one updates when the view is called a second time. My controller uses the key ShowCreateButton and has the optional parameter _createAction with a default value - you can change this to your key/parameter
@Html.TextBox("_createAction", null, new { Value = (string)ViewBag.ShowCreateButton })
@Html.TextBox("_createAction", ViewBag.ShowCreateButton )
@ViewBag.ShowCreateButton