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. ---- Especially if it--- What does - it - denote? Commitment or action? Ambiguity –Antecedent and meaning of second - it - is also suspect. What does it likely make to miss signs?

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. ---- How to make missing signs – really funny.

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. --- The choice first says – signs and they – a plural noun and pronoun and in the next breath calls it in the singular- it -


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. ---Executives’ being – rather awkward; No proper antecedent for them; first them must refer to executives, which is not there and the second – them- by logic should refer to the signs. A pronoun having two referents is ungrammatical

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. __- being as part of a subject phrase is acceptable since we cannot form the subject without the being. Being is taboo, only when it is superfluous and dispensable.

E is the king.

The usage of being in the sentence you came up with is not impossible. That is, we should probably not use it in a "first to be ruled out" way.

The bigger point, however, is that in your sentence, being is a modifier, but in this question, being forms the subject of the sentence (option 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.

That concept applies to the use of being as a (certain type of) modifier. In this case, it is not a modifier (it is the subject of the sentence). This means that we are not concerned about a who for the being. Instead, this being is used to communicate ~state. For example:

1. Being prepared is important.
2. Being too critical of the government may not be a good idea.

We can see that there is no "who" needed in either sentence.