Empowering leadership is defined as a process of sharing power by granting autonomy and responsibilities to followers through specific leadership behaviours that enhance intrinsic motivation. Recent research indicates a positive relationship between empowering leadership and members' satisfaction with the group, with team affective commitment serving both as a consequence of empowering leadership and as an antecedent to members' satisfaction with the group. This research, focused on team members with some degree of virtuality, aimed to deepen the understanding of how empowering leadership influences the functioning of work teams by examining the relationships between empowering leadership, team affective commitment, and members' satisfaction with the group, specifically analysing the mediating role of team affective commitment. The approach was rooted in the job demands-resources model and social exchange theory. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey administered to work teams from various organizations, using a quantitative, two-wave design with a two-month interval. The study is based on a sample of 122 participants, pertaining to 33 work teams from 16 organizations, all operating in the services and commerce sector in Portugal. The relationships between the variables were analysed through correlations and simple mediation. The results showed that empowering leadership is positively related to both team affective commitment and members' satisfaction with the group, and that team affective commitment is positively related to members' satisfaction with the group. Furthermore, team affective commitment mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and members' satisfaction with the group, highlighting the importance of emotional bonds within teams as a mechanism through which empowering practices influence satisfaction. These findings deepen the understanding of how empowering leadership shapes team outcomes and underscore the relevance of these dynamics in virtual contexts, providing a strong basis for future research and leadership development initiatives.