This paper explores the relationship between the level of preferred molecular orientation at different length scales and the subsequent glassy stress/strain behavior of polystyrene. To produce samples with a range of orientation states, samples of a commercial polydisperse polystyrene (M-w = 274 000 g/mol, polydispersity = 2.74) were first drawn to a set draw ratio and then annealed for a range of times: subsequent to this the glassy stress-strain behavior of the various annealed samples was then measured. Appropriate annealing times, and temperatures, were informed by the molecular based theories for the melt state. In particular, annealing times were chosen to span the range between the entanglement time, tau(e), and the typical reptation time, tau(d). Differences in the deformation behavior were linked to measurements of the birefringence and thermal shrinkage, reflecting short-range orientation and orientation of the order of the entanglement length, respectively. Results showed that for short annealing times (similar to tau(e)) the birefringence fell almost immediately and that the true stress-strain curves measured for these samples could be superposed by shifting along the true strain axis by an amount which correlated with the sample birefringence. For longer annealing times, of the order of the Rouse time tau(R), the stress/strain curves were found to no longer superpose in the higher true strain region. The shape of the strain hardening curve was found to correlate very well with the measurement of thermal shrinkage of the samples obtained after annealing. Samples with different initial draw ratios (and hence different initial birefringence and shrinkage), but then annealed to have the same shrinkage, were found to show the same shaped strain hardening curve: that is, the higher strain region of the curves superposed.