The paper explains urban management as a reform of city administration and claims that the primary task is to bring about a much-needed balance between the social and economic development of the city. Empirical research, presented in the paper offers several conclusions. The most relevant conclusion is that EU cities already commonly employ this concept of urban management, despite the lack of academic consensus. Other conclusions are that if a city is large, there is a greater possibility that

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... the city administration will adopt urban management; that if the city is more successful economically, there is a greater possibility that the city administration will adopt urban management; and that the city"s power and urban management are not correlated. Based on the survey conducted, we conclude that applying the urban management concept, when that concept is defined as proposed in this paper, has a positive effect on some aspects of a city"s performance.