How does data governance support organizational decision-making?

• A. By hoarding data to prevent sharing.
• B. By limiting access to data to a single department.
• C. By converting all data to a standard encryption.
• D. By ensuring data is available, high quality, protected, and reusable for analytics and compliance.

Answer: (D)

Data governance supports decision-making by making data trustworthy and usable across the organization. When data is available, high quality, protected, and reusable for analytics and compliance, decision-makers can rely on consistent, accurate information to inform strategies, monitor performance, and meet regulatory requirements. Governance achieves this through clear data ownership, quality rules, metadata management, data catalogs, data lineage, and appropriate access controls, ensuring data is reliable, discoverable, and secure while still usable for analysis.

Hoarding data blocks sharing and collaboration, which stifles informed decisions. Limiting access to a single department creates silos and prevents cross-functional insights. Encrypting all data without regard to usability protects information but makes analytics and governance impractical. The right balance is to protect data as needed while keeping it accessible, well-described, and ready for analytics and compliance needs.