A method and apparatus performing carrier management in a broadband wireless communication system supporting multi-carrier (MC) are disclosed. A method for a single-carrier supported mobile station (MS) to perform a carrier change with a MC supported base station (BS) includes transmitting a message indicating a support of a basic MC mode in which the MS is aware of a MC operation of the BS, receiving a carrier management command message including an action code and an action time on a serving carrier, transmitting, in response to the carrier management command message, a confirmation message indicating readiness of signal transmission/reception through a target carrier on a target carrier, and receiving a control signal and data from the BS on the target carrier, wherein the serving carrier and the target carrier are controlled by a common Medium Access Control (MAC) of the BS.