In 1994, the Wall Street Journal detailed the many ways in which General Electric
smoothed earnings, including the careful timing of capital gains and the use of
restructuring chares and reserves, in response to the article, General Electric reportedly
received calls from other corporations questioning why such common practices were
“front-page” news.
Earning management occurs when managers use judgment in financial reporting
and in structuring transactions to alter financial reports to either mislead some
stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to
influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers (Healy
and Whalen, 1999).
Magrath and Weld (2002) indicate that abusive earnings management and
fraudulent practices begins by engaging in earnings management schemes designed
primarily to “smooth” earnings to meet internally or externally imposed earnings
forecasts and analysts’ expectations.
Even if earnings management does not explicitly violate accounting rules, it is an
ethically questionable practice. An organization that manages its earnings sends a
message to its employees that bending the truth is an acceptable practice. Executives
who partake of this practice risk creating an ethical climate in which other
questionable activities may occur. A manager who asks the sales staff to help
accelerate sales one day forfeits the moral authority to criticize questionable sales
tactics another day.
Earnings management can also become a very slippery slope, which relatively
minor accounting gimmicks becoming more and more aggressive until they create
material misstatements in the financial statements (Clikeman, 2003)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued three staff accounting
bulletins (SAB) to provide guidance on some accounting issues in order to prevent the
inappropriate earnings management activities by public companies: SAB No. 99
“Materiality”, SAB No. 100 “Restructuring and Impairment Charges” and SAB No. 101
“Revenue Recognition”.