Abstract
The result of a conflict of interests between the management, the owners, and the rest of the stakeholders in the company, and according to the principle of rational choice, which each party tries to maximize its own benefits, the earnings management has emerged, so it is known that the earnings management is performed through the practices carried out by the management, which is resultant From its selection of the company's accounting policies, influenced by management own goals. however, the study aimed to learn about the concept of earnings management, its motives, and problems by examining a set of literature review for the period from 2017 to 2019. The study concluded that there is great agreement among most researchers that earnings management methods are used to mislead shareholders and users of financial statements, Thus it can be said that it is a set of activities, means, and procedures taken by the company’s management, which aims to maximize the benefits of management and achieve some benefits, regardless of their legitimacy, through the use and exploitation of flexibility in accounting standards or departure from them.