diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
index ea27aa14777..3bdeda0c0a4 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ test_that("strptime", {
   )
 
   tstring <- tibble(x = c("08-05-2008", NA))
-  tstamp <- tibble(x = c(strptime("08-05-2008", format = "%m-%d-%Y"), NA))
+  tstamp <- tibble(x = c(strptime("08-05-2008", format = "%m-%d-%Y", tz = "UTC"), NA))
 
   expect_equal(
     tstring %>%
@@ -568,3 +568,4 @@ test_that("errors in strptime", {
     'Time zone argument not supported by Arrow'
   )
 })
+