Julien Freund defines rationalization as "the organization of life through a division and coordination of activities on the basis of exact study of men's relations with each other, with their tools and their environment, for the purpose of achieving greater efficiency and productivity."
The rationalization process is the practical application of knowledge to achieve a desired end. Its purpose is to bring about efficiency, coordination, and control of the natural and social environment. It is a product of "scientific specialization and technical differentiation" that seems to be a characteristic of Western culture. Rationalization is the guiding principle behind bureaucracy and the increasing division of labor, and has led to an increase in both the production and distribution of goods and services. It is also associated with secularization, depersonalization, and oppressive routine.
Increasingly, human behavior is to be guided by observation, experiment, and reason (zweckrational). Change in human character is expected to be part of the process; rationalization and bureaucratization promote individualism, self-discipline, efficiency, and materialism, all of which are subsumed under Weber's concept of zweckrational.