We compare orientational relaxation phenomena of a light-emitting polymer and a, spectroscopically similar, conventional laser dye in solutions of comparable viscosity. The orientational relaxation time of the laser dye is found to be very much smaller than that of the polymer. This result is attributed to the large difference in shape between the two light-emitting materials. We demonstrate that these very different reorientation times have a major influence on the operation of a gain-switched laser based on these gain media, in particular on its threshold.