The concept of $C_{k}$-spaces is introduced, situated at an intermediate stage between $H$-spaces and $T$-spaces. The $C_{k}$-space corresponds to the $k$-th Milnor-Stasheff filtration on spaces. It is proved that a space $X$ is a $C_{k}$-space if and only if the Gottlieb set $G(Z,X)=[Z,X]$ for any space $Z$ with ${\rm cat}\, Z\le k$, which generalizes the fact that $X$ is a $T$-space if and only if $G(\Sigma B,X)=[\Sigma B,X]$ for any space $B$. Some results on the $C_{k}$-space are generalized to the $C_{k}^{f}$-space for a map $f\colon A \to X$. Projective spaces, lens spaces and spaces with a few cells are studied as examples of $C_{k}$-spaces, and non-$C_{k}$-spaces.