Preventing conflict is easier to do when an organization has a strong workplace culture. 

Here are some tips for building trust, encouraging good conflict, and preventing or addressing destructive conflict:

Survey employees. Conduct annual engagement surveys and have conversations with employees in the interim. Ask employees how well they think conflict is being handled. The results will identify departments that have widespread problems so the employer knows where training and intervention are needed.

1. Celebrate desired behavior. Have managers seek out opportunities to acknowledge and praise employees. 
2. Welcome dissent. Managers should encourage dissent that’s focused on tasks, strategies and mission. Sometimes, a retreat with an outside facilitator is the best way to get beyond surface conversations.
3. Create diverse teams. Create work teams whose members have diverse expertise, ways of thinking and backgrounds. Appointing a rotating devil’s advocate is a good way to stir up productive conflict.
4. Create accountability. This can help prevent conflicts, because many fights arise from a lack of clarity over who has the final authority to make a decision. Making sure that roles are well-established and communicated clearly prevents problems from arising.
5. Encourage people to manage their own conflicts. Tell employees to work out conflict at the level where it happens, instead of pushing it up the organizational chain. Doing so will give people the confidence that they are capable of handling these issues on their own.
6. Provide training. Employers can help people learn the skills they need to handle conflict by sending them to courses or recommending helpful books. Conflicts tend to become emotionally fraught when someone chooses not to focus on the issue at hand, but rather, to question another person’s competency, autonomy or integrity.

Source: SHRM Toolkit: Managing Workplace Conflict.