Final answer:
In the Xerox fraud case, motivations included management's emphasis on meeting short-term financial targets and celebrating earnings growth, which likely pressured employees to manipulate financial results.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to the motivations behind the Xerox fraud case. The motivations for fraudulent activities in such scandals typically include the intense pressure to meet or exceed financial performance targets. These targets are often related to both short-term and long-term financial metrics that companies use to gauge success and appeal to investors. Although a company may have a described code of ethics, this can sometimes be overshadowed by the strong emphasis on financial performance.
In the case of Xerox, the primary motivation was the heavy emphasis by management to meet short-term targets, often linked to the quarterly earnings that Wall Street expects companies to meet or exceed. This short-term focus can create an environment where meeting these expectations becomes more significant than abstaining from unethical behavior.
Additionally, management celebrated earnings growth, which could further incentivize accounting manipulations to make it look as though the company was continually growing, even if it meant engaging in fraudulent activity.
The motivation related to adhering to their code of ethics, in this context, is contradictory to the fraudulent behavior, and thus, it is more likely not a motivation for the fraud. Instead, it's a standard that was likely breached in the process.
And while a focus on long-term targets can also sometimes contribute to fraudulent acts if the future targets are unrealistic, the immediate pressure of short-term financial results is often the more significant driver for such fraud cases.