There are myriads of research outputs regarding the nexus between leadership behaviors and organizational effectiveness. Nonetheless, there is a scarcity of empirical studies examining the indirect effect of leadership behaviors on academic performance in higher education settings via organizational learning. The present study examined the effects of leadership behaviors on departmental performance through organizational learning in Ethiopian public research universities. Adopting a mixed research method, the researchers selected four universities from a total of eight public research universities using a simple random sampling technique, and 1176 staff members using a stratified random sampling technique, and 14 key informants using a purposive sampling technique to involve them in the study. Quantitative data was collected using multiple tools, namely the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire, and New Tool for Measuring Global Academic Performance. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interview. The quantitative data were analyzed using Frequency, Percentage, Multiple Correlations, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). The qualitative data was analyzed thematically using Open Code version 4.03. The results indicated that the directions of relations among the three variables of Leadership Behaviors (LB), Departmental Performance (DP), and Organizational Learning (OL) were positive while the magnitudes of the relations ranged from very weak to moderately strong. The dimensions of LB and OL accounted for the largest cumulative variance in DP. The study further demonstrated essential patterns that would guide future policy and managerial actions.