Formalization and rationalization of communication

In Computer Science, conceptual modelling and formalization are the basis for developing automated systems, "intelligent" or not. It is often taken for granted that formalization is possible and desirable. In the Language/Action perspective, this assumption has been challenged. The Language/Action perspective promotes "communicative action", in the sense of Habermas, as the building block of inter-and intraorganizational communication. In this paper, we want to discuss the issue of formalization from the broader perspective of rationalization. In this way, both the positive and negative sides of formalization can be more clearly seen. We illustrate this by means of examples from group support systems, workkow systems and software agents.