Interaction Pattern and Community Maintenance

Growing membership presents benefits and problems for the Hair Pro community. Members have different backgrounds and experiences, which are beneficial as a source of knowledge. Various knowledge backgrounds allow the bulletin board to pool

146 members’ knowledge and offer many approaches to solve hair styling problems. (This

topic will be discussed in detail in chapter five). On the other hand, heterogeneity is a source of disagreement due to members’ different backgrounds. Hair Pro Forum

handled this problem before it disturbed the Forum’s environment. The following example is taken from the earliest threads in the Forum. The thread starts with a member showing her negative opinion about a chain salon, describing it as low quality hair styling which threatens independent salons. The following excerpts show a part of the discussion:

1 2

“In owr area, they are just looking for warm bodies. Most that are at these places

could never make it in a private salon.” (Lady Lacey, 09-20-2005)

3 4

“wow legalized slave labor... maybe they could change the name from

SmartHair to SlaveTradeSecrets...:X” (X3, 09-21-2005)

5 6

“yup and as long as minimun wage is $5.35 an hour, they will get away with it.

Just like Walmart, KMart, fast food, lube shops, etc....” (HS, 09-21-2005)

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

“I am a manager at a HAIR Corp., started as a stylist and worked my way up. I love the company I work for, even if I am just a social security number to them. I have seen a lot and experienced a lot. I make good money, especially in tips. I guess everyone has different experiences, but mine has been positive for the last 9 years. ... Money is not always everything. I enjoy what I do and I love to see people happy. .... With my bonuses(monthly) and yearly bonuses I will have a lot of money saved. I just wanted to let you know of my GOOD feedback.

I am sorry if their are those who have been treated poorly. I do agree that it seems like a monopoly , though. In the malls they own 3 salons. If we happen to turn away a client, they really do not lose when the client leaves and goes to

another HAIR Corp. owned salon. Go figure...lol” (Scientificbeauty, 09-23-

2005) 18

19 20 21

“I don't think that a corporate salon is a bad thing, it depends more on who specifically is the manager you are working for or under that makes the biggest impact on what the salon experience is like.

It takes all types to make the world go round” (The Master, 09-23-2005)

22 23 24 25 26

“Knowing people at Master Cuts and HAIR Corp. I have found that it is just another place to work and that they have thier super stars and the people who come in and just exist. I think becuase they dominate we get scared and think that all of them are not like us. But in fact they are vary much like us, they just get

147 Lady Lacey’s message represents members’ support for the thread starter’s opinion:

people who works for chain salons have relatively lower skill than those who work in private salons (lines 1–2) and consequently are willing to work for low pay (lines 3–4). These members refer to services in chain salons as mass produced, associated with low price retail stores (“Walmart and KMart, fastfood, lube shops,” line 6). A member who

works for a chain salon posts her differing opinion on her working conditions, indicating that although it is not ideal (line 8), it provides a good income (lines 12–13). She defends her work by suggesting that her customers are satisfied with her work (line 11–12). Scientificbeauty defends her status without using harsh words to attack these members, and even adds jokes at the end of her message (lol = laughing out loud, line 17). The Master, as the site owner, follows Scientificbeauty’s message and shows a neutral stance towards these differences. He suggests that working in chain salons is not necessarily a bad thing (lines 18–20) and motivates others to be open (line 21). His example is followed by Hilarious Joe who makes it clear that different working status is not a threat (lines 24–26). These messages illustrate a common pattern of how the Forum handles different opinions. For readers, the messages demonstrate the Forum is open to varying perspectives. This approach is supported by the light emotional tone and politeness in the messages, giving examples of the community’s interaction rules in expressing different opinions.

The Master, as the site owner, makes explicit his point of view to maintain an open environment in the Forum, as shown in a message he posts in the community rules sub forum:

1 2 3 4

“I would just like to say that members should feel free to post their opinion here. No one should ever be timid about posting what they feel or think.

…

148 5 6 7 8 9

anything against you for having a different opinion than mine and I want you guys to be free to express yourselves. That interaction and expression is truly the only thing that we have and can give each other. I welcome it.

But, if you do disagree with me, it just goes to prove that you have no idea what

your talking about.... Ha Ha..that was a joke!“(The Master, 05-01-2006).

The Master was reflecting on his previous message, showing him disagreeing with another’s opinion. He quickly follows up with the above message to reassure the Forum that he supports an open but polite interaction. He posts these rules in a dedicated sub forum and encourages members to read them before joining the community. His statement describes his intention to welcome stylists from students to experts. He also warns members that textual messages are easily misunderstood. His warnings are given more emphasis later by Hair Fierce, who was recruited later as one of the moderators:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

“You know, we are very creative people. And the one thing that makes us so creative, is our keen sensitivities. Most of the time, these sensitivities work in our favour and we can sense what a client needs, or wants, or means, by the observation of body language, tone, inflection, or just reading their "vibes". Sometimes, however, these sensitivities work against us; when we can't see these other signals, we might just make-up our own.

When we post and read posts in this forum, we are generally just writing/reading text ... no tone, no inflection and we can't see facial expressions. Oh we have smilies, but sometimes even they are not helpful in conveying the "emotion" of our statements. Being visual creatures, "text-only" puts us at a disadvantage sometimes.

Some suggestions (not rules):

QUOTE what you are responding to. When you say "that sux" and you are referring to a statement several posts above, it would be helpful to know What

Sux? (I might even agree with you -)

In one of his posts, gennaro pointed out that there is a ten character minimum in any post, methinks it's for a reason. We could use those characters to explain our comments a little more fully.

When you read a post take into consideration that the author probably didn't pay any attention to anything I just said. So maybe if you read it a couple of times (a break in between wouldn't hurt either) you might find it could be

taken a differnt way. Maybe even a nonconfrontational PM(Personal Message,

personal email exchange not posted on the forum) asking for a little more

clarification would work.” (Hair Fierce, 06-06-2007, emoticon included)

Hair Fierce posts his message in the sub forum dedicated for community rules. He reminds readers of the stylists’ nature to be sensitive (lines 1–2) which often leads to

149 observe non-verbal signs (lines 5–6). His message is clear and detailed, with examples (lines 14–16). The Masters’s and Hair Fierce’s messages show the core members’ attempt to maintain a friendly environment. The core members try to soften the tone in The Master’s use of humour with his last word “Ha Ha..that was a joke!” (line 9). A

similar approach is shown in the second message as Hair Fierce uses a smile emoticon (line 16) and gives emphasis that it is merely a suggestion (line 13). These messages subtly establish interaction rules in the community without being overtly domineering.

Thread analysis demonstrates that the community maintains the friendly environment as shown in the lack of flaming where members personally attack others. The following excerpts present an example of the community’s behaviour towards a member with

unpleasant behaviour. A cosmetology student starts a thread with his or her intention to move to another school because he or she found the current school was not suitable to his or her personality. The member asks for the community’s information about beauty schools’ teaching methods and learning environments. The discussed thread is the

student’s second post on the same topic. Both of these threads generate replies

containing members’ experience during beauty school years, and advice to get through

this challenging period. The member’s second thread indicates he or she does not follow the community’s advice and stands by his or her opinion. The second thread illustrates

that although some members support this member with advice, others show their negative feelings toward the member’s stubbornness:

1 2 3 4

“Hasn't even gone and hates Awesome School already... Buy a clue! Or a mirror then you can bask in the wonder that is you all day long.

People are about as interested in what you babbling about, as you are interested

in their opinions.” (gennaro, 03-01-2010)

5 “I’m starting to think y’all are getting punked.” (magicalhair, 03-01-2010) 6

7

“I thought that myself! LOL but it has made for interesting conversation hasn’t

150 Gennaro’s negative comment (lines 1–4) is toned down by magicalhair’s suggestion that the member’s unpleasant behaviour is an act (“punked”, line 5). Although there is a

possibility of being deceived, Stylecontent’s message shows that there is a positive benefit in the discussion (line 6) and takes it lightly as she laughs (line7). Using jokes to tone down differing opinions is a common tool as shown in previous examples: The Master and Hair Fierce use it to establish rules, and Scientificbeauty uses it to defend her opinion. These examples demonstrate the community’s ability to stay friendly

despite differences and unpleasant behaviour. Hostility is toned down with jokes, allowing the environment to be nice without losing its frankness.

4.4

SUMMARY AND REVIEW

This chapter presented the research setting in two main parts. The first part described hair styling in general, from training to hair styling encounters. Literature in hair styling encounters is discussed with an emphasis on client–hair stylist interaction as social actors. General hair styling encounters are complex; whereby hair stylists perform complicated hair styling techniques while handling social interactions with customers. Research in hair styling encounters show that hair stylists’ social roles are multifaceted. They have to deal with society’s perception of hair styling as a low prestige occupation,

which influences customers’ expectations of the hair stylist’s role. Knowledge in a hair

styling context is gained mostly through learning in the workplace by observing others and gaining experience with various clients. Learning in a hair styling context involves expanding technical capabilities and having social interactions with different customers.

151 This chapter also introduced Hair Pro Forum as an online community of practice. The community represents hair stylists from different backgrounds, years of experience, working status and educational background. Despite this, the community has been able to maintain a friendly environment that facilitates knowledge sharing. The next chapter will present a detailed discussion of this topic as part of examining the reasons to participate in an online community of frontline personnel.

152 CHAPTER 5

PARTICIPATION IN AN ONLINE COMMUNITY:

SHARING LIFE AS HAIR STYLISTS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter four introduced Hair Pro Forum as an online community of frontline service personnel. The online bulletin board facilitates sharing workplace experiences for hair stylists with different training backgrounds and work experiences. Despite this heterogeneity, the Forum manages to maintain a friendly environment that encourages members’ participation. This chapter discusses the topic further by presenting findings

and analysis from discussions in the Forum. Two research questions will be addressed in chapter five: (1) Why do frontline personnel participate in a professional online community?, and (2) What are the online community’s characteristics that facilitate knowledge exchange and learning?

Literature reviewed in chapter two indicated that frontline service personnel participate in CoPs to share workplace experiences (e.g., Geiger & Turley, 2005; Lundberg & Mossberg, 2008; Sandiford & Seymour, 2007; Seymour & Sandiford, 2005) and to cope with emotional aspects of service work (Korczynski, 2003; Raz, 2007). These reasons are investigated with the first research question addressed in this chapter: Why do individuals participate in an online community of frontline service personnel? Answers to this question will be presented in two sections. Section 5.2 (Findings: Reasons to Participate in an Online Community of Hair Stylists) aims to give a general picture of

153 reasons to participate in the Forum. This section focuses on the general themes found in popular threads. A deeper examination of the discussion content will be presented in Section 5.3 (Findings: Sharing Life as Hair Stylists).

Section 5.4 will present an analysis of the findings, which include answers to the second research question in this chapter: What are the online community’s characteristics that facilitate knowledge exchange and learning? This section also introduces Hair Pro Forum as the source of occupational identity development.