Government business process analysis with activity theory

Activity Theory tells us that a motivated person or group performs an activity directed at an object in order to transform the object into desired outcomes to fulfil a need. It also tells us that instruments and the community mediate human activity. The New South Wales state parliament in Australia performs the activity of creating Acts and those Acts prescribe within them the objects of the Act and the desired outcomes. To achieve the desired outcomes, the Act will establish or constitute the necessary instruments. This paper describes an application of Yrjo Engestrom's Activity Theory model, or structure of human activity, to Parts 1,2 and 3 of the New South Wales "Waste Minimisation And Management Act", with the focus being on Part 3. The object of this application is to identify in the Act the prescribed mandatory core, mandatory non-core and mandatory supporting business processes of the Waste Board, an instrument constituted in Part 3 to administer that part of the Act.