I recently heard someone on a conference call use “summarization” when he should have used “summary” instead.

Problem:
These two nouns are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The noun “summarization” means the act or process of creating or preparing a summary.

The noun “summary” means a brief recapitulation of facts or previously made statements.

During the aforementioned conference call, one of the attendees asked another attendee, “Could you please give us a summarization of what happened the other day?”

What he should have asked is, “Could you please give us a summary of what happened the other day?”

I believe that the use of “-ation” words such as “summarization” as substitutes for the words from which they are derived (such as “summary”) originates from a lack of confidence by the speaker or writer (who wants to sound smarter than he is).

Solution:
Use “summarization” when talking about the process of creating a summary; otherwise, use “summary”.