rationalization

noun

1. (archaic, countable, uncountable)The process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.

   “Some rationalization of the language of his lectures is, of course, necessary.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.

   “Her self-flagellating rationalization for the theft was mostly ignored by the jury.”

   “But, he insisted, he was neither a “Union Saver” nor a “freedom shrieker.” He rejected all high-flown rationalizations for the war effort — “to hell with the devilish twaddle about freedom.””

   “After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of resources and changes in its workforce.

   “It began with the familiar political motives of civil service rationalization and downsizing.”

   “For socialism involves the reconstruction of industry upon the principle of production for use. It involves the rationalization of industry, the proper adjustment of production to the social requirements.”

   “The former, technical rationalisation, is a question of improvements carried out within businesses by the managers, methods like scientific management, the rapidity with which machinery is scrapped, the supervision of labour, by the stop-watch method or any other method, and generally what we economists have been in the habit of calling "internal economies."”

   “Rationalization includes partnership ventures, and if approved would mean capacity reductions in both sectors with thousands of steelworkers' jobs affected.”

   “He firmly believed that the only cure for unemployment was the revival of industry as a whole, and that private finance was the best spur and guide to rationalization. But the State would help.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
5. (countable, uncountable)The simplification of an expression without changing its value.

   “Here, the rationalization of the denominator was unnecessary.”