Polarized Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) transmission and attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy are well-known powerful tools to determine the orientation function of polymer materials. Both methods demand a special sample preparation. In our present studies, we used polarized FTIR photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) to determine the orientation function of real products from polymer processing without special preparation. We compare the results with those obtained with polarized FTIR transmission spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that polarized FTIR-PAS is useful to describe differences in the orientational behavior of hard and soft segments of thermoplastic poly(ether-urethane) in different elongated blends with common polypropylene and polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.