Human-Centered Leadership Using Industry 5.0 in Managing Modern Slavery

Abstract

Modern slavery continues to threaten global supply chains through economic pressure, social exclusion, weak enforcement, environmental isolation, and opaque technologies. This paper develops a human-centered leadership framework to manage modern slavery risks within the Industry 5.0 paradigm. Building on PESTEL indicators, ethical leadership, supplier governance, and human–technology synergy, the study proposes a DEMETAL process—define, explore, measure, evaluate, transform, apply, and learn—integrated with DEMATEL causal analysis. The analysis identifies drivers and dependent outcomes that shape the detection, prevention, and continuous learning of slavery risk. Because expert scores have not yet been collected, the numerical DEMATEL component is presented as an illustrative structured analysis to be validated through expert judgment. The proposed model shows that ethical human-centered leadership, supplier governance, and political–legal enforcement act as dominant causal enablers, while technological transparency and Industry 5.0 capability depend on these leadership and governance conditions. The paper contributes to social sustainability and operations research by translating modern slav-ery prevention into a decision-support structure for managers and top management.