Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
The use of “being” should not be a deciding factor in eliminating an answer choice. Check whether the use of "being" is correct in the context.
A. Who will miss those signs? Not clear. The two "it"s refer to two different things. 1st = course of action. 2nd = placeholder.
B. this sentence reads - "an executive ... makes ... missing signs of trouble likely" - clearly illogical. "ones" is incorrect. We need "them". The pronoun "one" can only refer to a subset of the noun to which it refers, not the entire thing.
C. "especially if it " is too far away from "course of action" and thus is inferior to the placement in option E.
D. The pronoun 'them' has no antecedent. It cannot refer to the possessive noun executives'. "miss signs" and "misinterpreting them" are not parallel.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
E is the best option!