International Business Research; Vol. 9, No. 10; 2016 ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 94 Cultural Influence on Strategic Human Resource Management Practices: A Jordanian Case Study Bader Obeidat 1 , Safa Al-Sarayrah 1 , Ali Tarhini 2 , Rand Hani Al-Dmour 3 , Zahran Al-Salti 2 , Rateb Sweis 1 1 Department of Business Management, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan 2 College of Economics and Political Science, Department of Information Systems, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman 3 Department of Management Information Systems, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan Correspondence: Ali Tarhini, College of Economics and Political Science, Department of Information Systems, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. E-mail: alitarhini@squ.edu.om Received: August 8, 2016 Accepted: August 29, 2016 Online Published: September 6, 2016 doi:10.5539/ibr.v9n10p94 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v9n10p94 Abstract This study aims to investigate the impact of national culture on strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices on Pharmaceutical industries in Jordan. A quantitative research design using regression analysis was applied in this study and a total of 133 were obtained through a questionnaire distributed to pharmaceutical industries in Jordan. The results showed that national culture dimensions significantly affect SHRM practices and namely, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, and individualism have an impact on SHRM practices. Except power distance has insignificant effect on SHRM practices. This study implies that HR managers must be aware of national culture of their country, and try to link it with SHRM practices to improve the company‟s performance. Moreover, since national culture explained 20% of the var iance in SHRM practices, future researches should be directed towards examining other factors affecting SHRM practices. Keywords: culture, national culture, Hofstede, human resource management, strategic human resource management practices, Jordan, Arab countries 1. Introduction The impact of national culture on organization culture is reflected in several ways. Such as, the constraints imposed on organizations by the external environment and the mentality and habits of organization‟s members (Al-Busaidi et al., 2010; Abbasi et al., 2015). Also, organizations culture has an important impact on the strategies of organizations and their success (Alenezi et al., 2015; Masa‟deh et al., 2016). Strategic management is important and useful to any organization, since it provides a clear direction in which the organization is heading to, such as strategic plans, mission, vision, objectives and goals (Kemp and Dwyer, 2001; Hajir et al., 2015; Almajali et al., 2016). Thus, effective management of people can produce substantially enhanced economic performance in organization (Pfeffer, 1998; Masa‟deh et al., 2015). In addition, strategic human resource management (SHRM) demonstrates the importance of HR practices for organization performance (Yan, 2010). Moreover, human resource (HR) practices considered to be an important element to the organizations to achieve their competitive advantage (Ismail et al., 2010). Accordingly, HR practices must be aligned to the organization strategy in order to achieve the competitive advantage and to enhance the performance in organizations (Wan et al., 2002; Masa‟deh et al., 2015). In order to effectively implement SHRM practices in any organization, it must be congruent with the national culture. Thus, we can imply that national culture play an important role in shaping SHRM practices, since these practices are implemented by managers who in turn affected by the environment where they live, which impact their perception, behavior, and their decision. Beside, societies are formed of firms, institutions and organizations that reflect the prevailing values of their culture of a country (Hofstede, 1984a). Managers and administrators, in both private and public organizations, are becoming increasingly aware that a critical source of competitive advantage does not often come from original product or services, but from having an appropriate system of attracting and managing the organization‟s human resources ( Al-Busaidi, 2010; Ayanda and Sani, 2011; Shannak et al., 2012; Altamony et al., 2016). Because countries often have unique cultures (i. e.