In a computer network, network management applications in a network management station manage and control managed elements connected to the network through the use of network management requests. The network management requests are prioritized by the management station or the managed element. The managed element prioritizes received requests by pre-assigning priority values corresponding to user identification values included in the request or by pre-assigning priority values corresponding to source identification values included in the request. The management station prioritizes the network management requests by adding a priority value to each network management requests before sending the request to the managed element. The managed element extracts the priority value directly from the request or dependent on the user identification or source identification included in the request.